If football thug Michael Ball is allowed to play again before the 2008-09 season, the game's disciplinary buffoons deserve the same treatment he dished out to Cristiano Ronaldo.

Personally I hope we never see Ball in British football again. The sooner Manchester City banish the former Everton and Rangers defender back to Holland, from whence he came (and preferably a lot further than that), the better.

Ball’s premeditated stamp on Ronaldo warrants a minimum of a full-season ban. Of course it won't happen - the lily-livered FA will probably settle for a punishment of half-a-dozen games at most.

'If I was Ronaldo and the authorities don't do their stuff, I'd just march into the nearest police station, show them the ugly wheal on my stomach, and demand they arrest Ball for assault and ABH'


But if I was Ronaldo and the authorities don't do their stuff, I'd just march into the nearest police station, show them the ugly wheal on my stomach, and demand they arrest Ball for assault and ABH.

The wonder is that the Manchester United wizard suffered no serious damage from the premeditated attack - it just made him even more determined to make a fool of his cowardly assailant. And with true poetic justice, he did - blasting home Manchester United's penalty winner after being predictably upended by, you guessed it, Ball.

United deserved to win if only because any side that includes such disgusting specimens deserves to lose. Perhaps it was fated that when Ball later won a penalty for City with some theatrical over-reaction to Wes Brown's challenge, Darius Vassell's spot-kick was saved by Edwin van der Saar.

Why is it that City, the club I always remember as one of the fairest and friendliest in the game, suddenly seem to have developed a mentality in keeping with their manager's nickname?

They may call Stuart Pearce 'Psycho', but my memory of him as a player is that he was a hard, uncompromising but fair defender. And I find it difficult to believe that he would sanction the sort of behaviour we saw from Ball on Saturday any more than he condoned Joey Barton's vicious assault on a teammate in training last week.

Unfortunately Pearce's management career seems to have been blighted by the emergence at Eastlands of at least three football psychos in the shape of Ben Thatcher, Barton and now Ball.

We all remember Thatcher's horrendous elbow on Portsmouth's Pedro Mendes last August - a 'crime' that earned him an eight-match ban and indirectly led to his departure from City. The currently-suspended Barton we all know about, though his loony violence invariably takes place off the field, rather than on it.

And after axing Barton for the rest of the season (how they could have done with his midfield guile against United), Pearce now has to deal with Ball.

The fact that the defender's hideous stamp was delivered in the opening minutes hinted that his game plan was to put danger-man Ronaldo out of the action at the earliest possibility. Could it  just be that Ball, whose actions suggest a lack of grey matter,  had been told to get stuck into Ronaldo from the start and decided to do it literally - with his boot?

City used to be my second favourite team after my hometown club Cardiff. After moving to Manchester, I spent many happy hours in the mid-1990s delighting in the magical talents of Georgi Kinkladze and Co at Maine Road - and developed a great affection for the club.

But suddenly it's all gone to pot - discipline-wise at least. City, I grieve for you. And United, I'm really glad you won if only because thugs must never triumph.

What punishment do you think Michael Ball deserves? Post a comment below or write an article for Sportingo.