In the continuing war against online abuse it is crucial that football authorities everywhere ensure the players under their control are behaving themselves.
Stamping out wider digital abuse is hard enough as it is but, if players aren’t leading by example, then it will be a near impossible task.
Which is why whenever a professional player steps out of line with an offensive tweet or abusive post, the FA needs to act fast, decisively and publicly.
I think we are all agreed on this.
However, there is also a point when the authorities go too far, become overzealous and end up looking quite ridiculous. And here’s the perfect example of that in action.
Over the past few days, Middlesbrough’s Marc Bola was charged with misconduct by the Football Association for posting a tweet that was either “insulting, abusive or improper” and included a reference to “sexual orientation”.
At first glance, slapping him with a charge sounds like the sensible course of action. Until, that is, you find out the offence dates back to 2012…
Bola was a teenager at the time, barely 14 years old. I have no doubt that whatever he said was stupid, ill-informed, childish and wrong. But he was a teenager, for crying out loud. What teenager doesn’t say stupid things in the heat of the moment, egged on by their peers or trying to impress those they probably shouldn’t?
We don’t know precisely what it was that Bola said in his tweet as the FA obviously don’t quote it. And I’m pretty sure that Bola – shamed at the misguided comments he made in his youth – has deleted it now.
But the precise details of the tweet are not overly relevant in this case, it is the age at the time of the offence that makes this an entirely meaningless charge.
Social media is a minefield for teenagers, fraught with perils, pitfalls and repercussions. It can be a horrible and depressing place where words are taken out of context and seemingly innocent comments can come back to haunt you.
But people of my generation, who mercifully grew up before social media was a thing, often fail to realise just how hard it is trying to turn from a teenager to an adult with social media hanging round your neck.
I am watching it happen with my own children and I don’t envy them one little bit.
And the same goes for Bola. Yes he was stupid – but I challenge any one of you reading this to tell me, hand-on-heart, that you never said anything stupid as a teenager; never once passed a comment you wouldn’t dream of saying now; never tried to be “witty” by saying something that, today, is deemed entirely unacceptable.
The rules governing footballers and social media didn’t even exist when the offence took place. It’s a bit like someone being charged today for driving without a seat belt 50 years ago
It isn’t big or clever but, for most people, making social errors is part and parcel of growing up. For footballers, in their strange little bubbles, it is probably even worse.
If this war on online abuse within football is ever going to be won, the Football Association needs to pick and choose its battles a bit more carefully.
Charging people with historic crimes committed while they were in the grip of a testosterone tsunami is pointless and futile.
More so when you consider the rules governing footballers and social media didn’t even exist when the offence took place. It’s a bit like someone being charged today for driving without a seat belt 50 years ago.
Bola made one stupid mistake half a lifetime ago. Make sure he knows what he did wrong, make sure he understands why it was wrong, and move on.
Otherwise the credibility of this war on abuse – and the very organisation that is supposed to be fighting it in England – is going to be called into question.
My Euro regret
If I have one regret about Euro 2020 it’s not that England lost the final to Italy. Nope. That was totally deserved and the only justifiable outcome.
My regret from this summer’s competition is that I allowed myself to get caught up in the euphoria surrounding Gareth Southgate and started to believe the hype.
As England headed into the tournament, I expressed severe doubts about his suitability. I didn’t like his indecisive approach to team selection and I felt his tactics were questionable, and far, far too defensive.
But as the Three Lions stumbled their way to the final, I started to doubt my own doubts. Maybe I was being too harsh. Maybe Southgate’s methods were the right ones. Maybe he was England’s football messiah after all.
Well, he isn’t. He is just a very nice guy who happens to have become England manager at a time when the stars have aligned to give him the best collection of players in a generation.
If the Euro 2020 final itself was not proof enough of his tactical naivety and inability to take decisions, then last Wednesday’s match against Poland was the final confirmation.
England managed to snatch a draw from the jaws of victory due to Southgate’s latest bout of dithering, which saw him go an entire international match without making a single substitution.
What was he thinking?
Bringing on fresh legs is vital at this level of football. It gives the opponents something new to think about and adds a bit more energy to the whole team.
But Southgate didn’t bother because he thought doing so would ‘disrupt’ the team.
What the heck?
Substitutes are a fundamental part of the game at every level. Speak to any top manager – Pep Guardiola, José Mourinho, Alex Ferguson, Jurgen Klopp, Carlo Ancelloti, Zinedine Zidane – they all acknowledge the importance of a good substitution.
But not our Gareth.
The tired and aching English legs couldn’t cope with Poland and their FIVE fresh players, and the injury time equaliser nestled in the back of the net.
Southgate’s limited tactics work well against limited opponents like Andorra and Hungary. But whenever he comes up against serious opponents he is either found desperately wanting or scrapes through on pure luck.
Under his leadership, Qatar 2022 is going to be a footballing bloodbath for this England team when it should be a path to glory.
twitter: @maltablade