FA step back from another confrontation

EIGHT years is a long time in scuffling.

In September 2003, a lone provocateur was set upon by angry opponents at the final whistle of a crucial football match. As emotions ran high, the schoolyard bullying that ensued would be widely deplored in the media and heavy charges laid against the miscreants involved — nine matches in bans and £175,000 in fines.

One journalist described the jostling “as one of the worst things I have seen in 50 years of watching football in all corners of the world,” deploring the “disgusting gang action” and the “contorted face of Keown and those of his team-mates Ray Parlour, Lauren and Ashley Cole.”

Last Saturday afternoon, that mild-mannered kidder Mario Balotelli reprised the Ruud van Nistelrooy role of eight years ago, while Rio Ferdinand, pictured, Nani and Anderson pulled on the masks of hate for a little push and shove.

Is it progress that nobody seems to have cared a jot or have we simply become completely desensitised to bad behaviour in football? Either way, the FA looks to have followed the media’s indifferent lead.