Walkouts can cause bigger trouble

AFTER 16 years as a player and 33 years as a manager travelling to all corners of the globe, the 65-year-old Alex Ferguson must have seen it all.

Then came Tuesday.

'I have never seen anything like that in football,' said the Manchester United manager, after watching Lille walk off the pitch to protest against Ryan Giggs' free-kick goal.

If Ferguson had seen or heard about Thailand's National Stadium walkout on Jan 31, during the Asean Football Championship final against Singapore, he was not letting on.

Lille's walkout in the Champions League tie was for just one minute, compared to the 15 minutes the Thais spent on the sidelines arguing against a penalty decision.

But Ferguson had every right to be upset by Lille's behaviour during the 1-0 win.

His expression - mouth slightly open in the cold French winter, face flushed with anger - said it all: walking out in the middle of a game has no place in sport.

At this point, the two incidents in Singapore and France take different routes.

The Asean Football Federation and the Asian Football Confederation felt a reprimand for the Thais was enough.

If the latest rumblings in Uefa are anything to go by, Lille can expect to receive more than just a ticking off.

And rightly so.

On the surface, acts such as walking off the pitch to protest against a decision may be simply childish.

But, scratch deeper, and you find that such behaviour can be a portent of something more sinister.

Thailand's walkout came and went without incident. Sadly, that was not the case at the Felix-Bollaert Stadium.

There is little doubt that Lille's antics fuelled raging emotions on the terraces. Missiles were thrown onto the pitch, and United's Gary Neville was hit.

Lille president Michel Seydoux countered that attempting to stop the match was never an option. In heading to the sidelines, his team were merely protesting the decision to allow Giggs' goal to stand.

'They are the French rules,' he added.

Newly-elected Uefa president Michel Platini may be French, but he is unlikely to agree with Seydoux.

Uefa is seeking to clean up an image tarnished by recent outbreaks of violence in Italy, Germany and France.

On Monday, Platini had urged all 16 remaining clubs in the Champions League to set good examples.

Lille were not listening. Maybe Ferguson was not either.

Ever the wily one, he added: 'I don't know who was responsible for encouraging them to take that line. But they kicked the ball into touch straight from the kick-off.

'We should have taken a quick throw-in, gone down the other end of the pitch and scored a second.'

How that would have gone down with the already maddened home fans does not bear contemplating.

What can be carefully considered is this: Uefa has already kicked Feyenoord out of the Uefa Cup for crowd trouble. It now has to send out a loud and clear signal that Lille were in the wrong.

It will be a signal that Asian football's bigwigs can learn from.

marclim@sph.com.sg