Bowyer Loses Pounds And Feels Fine

Whilst Italian football is on a high on the pitch and low off it, English football had a day of shame with Lee Bowyer being fined for his on the pitch brawl with Keiron Dyer, Craig Bellamy being forced to defend himself against accusations of assault in a nightclub (again) and Gary Charles in court for assaulting a taxi driver.

Like most neutrals I was amazed when the Bowyer / Dyer incident happened but highly amused also, the now West Ham player acting like a complete drongo during yet another home defeat for Newcastle during Souness' reign. The question is to where this crossed the line in the minds of the police to report the matter to the CPS? There have been numerous incidents in recent years where more than two players have been involved in a scuffle so what made Bowyer different, other than his "previous"? Was this any more serious than say Arsenal players behaviour at the end of the either of the last two visits to Old Trafford. Given that professional footballers are supposedly role models to the youth of today, maybe this is a salutory warning to players coming after a season of police investigations into "Roasting" and the like. Whether they will change is another matter. Very few have shown any nous to learn from the mistakes of those who have trodden the same path before them so I don't have high hopes of any improvement in the near future.

Having already been fined in the region of £250,000 by his club and the FA, Bowyer may well have burst out laughing when the £600 fine was handed down today. Even adding on costs, it has come to less than £2,000 making the law well and truly an ass. I wonder if he had the front to ask if he could pay over a number of weeks?