Soccer:The Football Association has charged Chelsea's Eden Hazard with violent conduct following an incident with a Swansea ball boy, saying it is alleged the "standard punishment that would otherwise apply was clearly insufficient". The Chelsea midfielder was sent off by Chris Foy for kicking out at Charlie Morgan in the closing stages of Wednesday night's Capital One Cup semi-final second leg.
The Belgian lost patience when the 17-year-old ball boy refused to hand over the ball after it had gone out for a goal-kick. Morgan fell to the ground as Hazard attempted to get the ball from him, with the 22-year-old then trying to kick it from under him but appearing to also make contact with the youngster.
The red card means Hazard is already in line for an automatic three-match ban.
An FA statement this afternoon, read: "The FA have charged Chelsea’s Eden Hazard following his side’s League Cup semi-final at Swansea City on 23 January 2013. It is alleged that Hazard’s behaviour in relation to a Swansea City ball boy, for which the player was dismissed in the 78th minute, constituted violent conduct whereby the standard punishment that would otherwise apply was clearly insufficient.
"The player has until 6pm on Tuesday, January 29th, 2013, to respond to the charge.
"The FA will remind all clubs of their responsibilities in ensuring ball boys and other personnel around the pitch act in an appropriate manner at all times and will liaise with competitions accordingly.
Chelsea were today considering their response after learning Hazard would not face separate criminal action.
South Wales Police announced they had dropped their investigation into the incident, posting on Twitter: “We can confirm there is no longer any police involvement in this matter.”
The police launched a probe after receiving three calls from members of the public living in Sussex, Kent and west Wales over the actions that led to Hazard’s dismissal by referee Foy
Prior to the investigation being dropped Swansea chairman Hugh Jenkins was baffled by the plice involvement, telling Sky Sports News: “Things are done in the heat of the moment and probably everybody looks back and wishes things had been done differently. We accept how things are and all move forward.”
Speaking before the FA charged Hazard, Jenkins called for the matter to be dropped entirely.
“That would be my personal feeling, but I can’t control what others are going to do. Speaking on behalf of the club, it’s something we’d quickly like to forget.”
Chelsea boss Rafael Benitez refused to be drawn on any aspect of the ball-boy saga or its implications. The Spaniard deployed the same bizarre evasion tactics used in a press conference earlier this week, saying: “We have two windows: one for football and one for the other issues.”
He said Hazard had trained “normally” since the incident and that any disciplinary action taken against him by the club was an “internal” matter.
After repeated probing, Chelsea’s head of communications eventually intervened, saying: “The club, on the evening, recognised the seriousness of the incident. The player recognised that he was wrong to react in that way. The appropriate apologies were made, and the club made every effort to make those happen.”
Reaction elsewhere showed no sign of abating, with QPR manager Harry Redknapp scathing, branding the ball boys’ actions “disgusting”.
He said: “You’re a player trying to reach a cup final but there’s this kid behaving like an idiot who won’t give you the ball back. Hazard didn’t kick the kid, he kicked the ball underneath him, but the whole thing got blown out of all proportion. I can think of a lot of players who would have kicked a bit harder than he did. The boy was tweeting before the game that he’s a super time-waster. The way he behaved was disgusting.”
Morgan himself briefly broke his silence last night, tweeting: “Crazy 24 hours. Spoke to Hazard and I will not be pressing charges.”
It also emerged Morgan was no mere ball boy but the son of millionaire Swansea director Martin Morgan.
Former Swansea manager Brendan Rodgers spoke up for Morgan and suggested any possible time-wasting was “nothing sinister”.
Rodgers, who spent two years at the Liberty Stadium before moving to Liverpool last summer, joked: “I know Charlie well. He used to do it great for me! He was taught well! He is a good boy is the kid. He loves his club and he loves his football.”
He added: “Don’t get me wrong, ball boys are well tuned in to what is required in the game. There was maybe a wee bit of gamesmanship by Charlie but certainly nothing sinister. I think any manager, player, coach would be happy if their ball boy did that.”
