One incident in yesterday’s Premier League game at Selhurst Park that could have caused a situation saw a Crystal Palace ball boy slow to hand the ball back to Chelsea player César Azpilicueta as he wanted to run as much time off the clock as possible with his team Crystal Palace leading Chelsea 1-0.
We have an issue in football if ball boys are being educated to time waste for their team, regardless of the score, situation and time on the clock.
Last season the FA fined and suspended Chelsea forward Eden Hazard for his soft kick on a Swansea City ball boy who failed to do his job in an unbiased manner and give the player the ball back in a League Cup semi-final tie.
Unfortunately the home club or ball boy weren’t fined – but instead it was the player who got the punishment for showing his emotions on the pitch when employed personnel stadium were not doing their job, but also purposely cheating one of the team’s out of a fair game.
Yesterday’s situation never got out of hand, and post-game Chelsea manager José Mourinho explained the situation:
“I don’t like the ball boys provocating the players because at the end of the day what happened last year at Swansea when the players loses his temper.
“After that the player is guilty of something that is not guilty.
“So I think it’s not right to educate kids to do that.”
Here’s what Mourinho told the ball boy:
“I told him not to do that because he has a risk of one of my players to punch him or to lose his temper, so don’t do that.
“But somebody told him to do that.”
When asked whether he was breaking the rules about leaving his technical area to talk to the ball boy:
No, I went there to stop Azpilicueta because I know Azpilicueta is an emotional guy. [He was] one of the guys that was really not losing for them [team mates] in terms of spirit, because all four of my defenders are all phenomenal in their attitude, in the way they play every minute of every game.
“I was afraid of Azpilicueta to go there and to do something, to push the kid or to create a situation.
“So I went there just to stop my player not for anything else.
“And the kid knows because he knows what I told him.”
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