Only blithering idiots truly believe that Joey Barton should be banned from football.

The attitude that somehow Barton has done something so heinous that the rules of football should be twisted to elicit his removal is a ridiculous, blinkered and out of touch.

Part of the bile thrown up at Joey clearly stems from the whole Newcastle United 'bad boys' tag. The image - which still lives on in certain quarters - is of the club as some kind of Alcatraz of the North East, a place where only ne’er-do-wells and shady people play. That Newcastle somehow went from everybody’s second team to a club somehow synonymous with sleaze saddens me.

'Granted Barton is clearly one sandwich short of a picnic, but if we are going to introduce some sort of rule that sees people banned from football for criminal acts of violence, then what about Duncan Ferguson for his head-butt on John McStay?'


Granted, Barton is clearly one sandwich short of a picnic, but if we are going to introduce some sort of rule that sees people banned from football for criminal acts of violence, then what about Duncan Ferguson for his head-butt on John McStay?

Ferguson served six weeks in Barlinnie Prison, but continued to play football after his incarceration. What about Lee Hughes, the former West Brom striker who was found guilty of death by dangerous driving, and who fled the scene of the crime and went on to play for Oldham?

What about Roy Keane's on-field GBH on Alf Inge Haaland in a totally sober and premeditated attack? Or perhaps Jonathan Woodgate's conviction of affray in an attack on a student in Leeds, or Eric Cantona’s attack on a fan at Selhurst Park which resulted in punishment but not a permanent ban?

And what of managers who disgraced themselves - from George Graham’s very own Chappaquiddick, his bung scandals, to Glenn Hoddle and his claims that the disabled were being punished in previous lives. When looking at unsavoury footballing incidents it is often hard to see the wood for the trees and in claiming that Barton should be booted out of the game for good, people forget all the above incidents

When you drown out the tabloid drone and focus on the sea of culprits guilty of countless crimes, the idea that Barton should be banned from football becomes so ridiculous as to be untenable.

Tourettic yelps of “ban him” are knee jerk and ridiculous. By all means punish him, but to forcibly and permanently remove him from football is overkill.