Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Dier will be punished... but he might also have done football a favour
WHATEVER the spark for the Eric Dier incident, you can be absolutely certain of one thing.
Fundamental to the furore was someone saying something that he or she would never even consider saying on the street, in the workplace, at home.
Someone behaving in a way that would be unthinkable in everyday life, in the office, in the front room.
Someone believing that, somehow, being in a football stadium entitles you to act and talk abusively with impunity, as if normal rules of life get suspended when the turnstile clicks.
Leave your decency at the gate, no problem.
Dier tried to bring his own law to the lawless land of the game’s stands and will be punished for it by the Football Association.
They have no option. They simply cannot be seen to be giving the green light for players to pile into the seats in pursuit of punters, however objectionable they may be.
But if Dier’s actions shine a light on the issue of unacceptable behaviour, then he has done the game a favour.
Never mind the specifics of this particular incident, the level of disgusting abuse from some spectators is on the rise.
On Tuesday, Everton fan Darren Chadwick was banned from football matches for three years after racially abusing Andros Townsend when the Crystal Palace player was about to take a corner-kick.
If he was walking alone in the street and happened upon Townsend, what would Chadwick have said or done? You know the answer.
Being in a football crowd makes some people awfully brave.
That is because repercussions are rare.
Only very determined actions from a Selhurst
Park steward led to Chadwick’s conviction.
And that sort of scenario is rare – almost as rare as a player clambering over the hoardings.
Generally, police officers are noticeable by their absence inside most football stadia nowadays, and a hi-viz jacket does not turn most stewards into law enforcers.
That is why so many fans feel enabled to hurl abuse that is not just offensive to the target but to many around them.
One lamentable excuse for this type of behaviour is that emotions run high inside a football stadium.
Coincidentally, it is the same excuse we hear trotted out for players and managers who show dissent towards officials.
When Carlo Ancelotti angrily confronted referee Chris Kavanagh after last Sunday’s match against Manchester United at Goodison Park, it was the Everton manager who seemed to generate the supporters’ sympathy.
At worst, most pundits and observers seemed to laugh off his dissent.
For his red card, the £1million-a-month manager has been given an £8,000 fine. Big deal.
And for all their utterly brilliant work, Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp have normalised ranting and raving at officials.
Jose Mourinho has long been a dab hand, of course, and when he laid into fourth official Graham Scott in the home game against Manchester City at the start of last month, it was seen as highly amusing.
There was a time when there was supposed to be a clampdown on dissent towards officials. That seems to have been forgotten.
Players and managers having a go at referees is not the catalyst for unacceptable spectator behaviour, but it does not set a great example.
That is why it should not be tolerated, just as the bile from the stands should not be tolerated.
And if Dier’s intervention prompts a step towards less tolerance of abuse at football grounds, then he deserves a pat on the back as well as a slap on the wrist.