HOT ROD GETS A KICKING OVER NOTHING

THIS is a football paper not a medium for a personal agenda. So I apologise in advance for getting on this soap box.

However, I read this week that Rod Stewart is being sued by a fan whose nose was broken when the singer booted a football into the crowd at a concert in Vegas. It made my stomach turn.

Life is not plain sailing. Things happen that aren’t expected. You can be in the wrong place at the wrong time and you can suffer. But it isn’t always somebody else’s fault.

I do not believe Rod Stewart stood on a stage and thought to himself ‘let me smash a ball into the crowd and hurt somebody’. I reckon he tried to give his fans a memento that they would love forever. I am sure he wasn’t being reckless or nasty.

So why the hell do we have a system that allows him to be sued?

What will happen next? Will a footballer knock a punter out with a misplaced shot and make a claim against the player? Is that fair? Doesn’t the punter have to accept that if you stand behind a goal then a ball might hit you?

Do we really need to watch football through netting in case a ball goes astray? Please can somebody stand up and give me a chance to vote for the return of common sense. I am sick to death of reading about nonsense like this.

I have been on the wrong end of stuff myself. I broke my leg in three places in a football match. The tackle was late and the tackle was carded. But I didn’t sue. I was playing the game I love and things happen. It was a price I paid for trying to score.

If we aren’t careful we will have players suing fans for making too much noise and damaging their hearing! Please, can we stop this culture of blaming somebody else.

And for goodness sake, head it with your forehead, not your nose...