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A life ban must be one penalty for any footballer found guilty of eye-gouging or stomping on an opponent’s head. And add two more penalties with no get-out clauses, and an automatic ripping up of the culprit’s contract.
Draconian? No way.
Two rugby footballers in 2010 – Welshmen Gavin Quinnell playing for Scarlets, and amateur Clarence Harding playing lower grades – have lost their sight after being eye-gouged.
Yet administrators still haven’t taken take the necessary steps to wipe out the dangerous practice.
In 1927, Frenchman Gaston Riviera died after being stomped on. The culprit went free.
In 1978, All Black John Ashworth stomped on Welsh full-back JPR Williams, who left the field, had 30 stitches inserted in his head wound by his doctor father, and resumed.
Those two examples are bad enough. But must a footballer suffer permanent brain damage from being stomped on, or go blind from being sprigged in the eye?
Eye-gouging and stomping are two premeditated acts of violence, unacceptable on the football field, and must be treated as such.
Players are banned for life for striking a referee or umpire. And rightfully so. But that act isn’t nearly as dangerous as gouging or stomping.
Amazingly, there have been a seriously high 26 rugby footballers found guilty of eye-gouging at the elite level since 1992: eight of them during internationals. And the penny still hasn’t dropped with administrators.
Former All Black prop Richard Loe was the first caught 20 years ago, copping 26 weeks for gouging Greg Cooper in the Waikato-Otago game.
Bok lock Bakkies Botha was the first international, when he gouged Wallaby hooker Brendan Cannon in 2003, and was suspended for 8 weeks.
In the latest incident, Rebels lock Adam Byrnes gouged Tom Carter in the Super Rugby clash with the NSW Waratahs on May 2, earning a 10-week holiday. Byrnes is ineligible to play again until May 13.
The additional farce is the disparity of the gouging suspensions, ranging from the all-time high 104 weeks for Richard Nones playing for Colombiers against Pontypridd in 1999, to just 3 weeks for Troy Flavell playing for North Harbour against Wellington in 1997.
Rugby footballers have a long tradition of sticking up for one another.
But when it comes to eye-gouging and stomping, there would be universal support for the maximum penalty.
Your move, administrators.