After they left Arsenal… Emmanuel Eboué attacked by fans

By Tony Attwood

Emmanuel Eboue

Sad to report that the former Arsenal defender Emmanuel Eboué was repeatedly pelted by missiles while playing for Galatasaray.  There is no report that this was a racist attack, but rather a protest against Eboue who is seen as a player who dives.

Bottles, cigarette lighters and the like were thrown at him by fans of Besiktas who are rivals of Galatasaray.

What made the issue particularly concerning is that although the player appealed to the ref and linesmen to do something they seemingly refused to act.

Although every player should be protected from loonies who throw things (just as I have always made the point that fans should be protected from loonies like Carragher who threw a pound coin back into the crowd at Highbury and merely got a three match ban) there is also the point that footballers, like all other workers, should take advice before travelling abroad to seek employment.

Turkey has long been known as a difficult place to work as a footballer, and never more so than now, after a summer of match fixing allegations which saw many people in the game arrested (including the chairmnn of Trabzonspor and Fenerbahce, and the former Turkish federation president Mahmut Ozgener.

In fact when their man was arrested Fenerbahce supporters went on the rampage outside the court rooms, and tear gas was used to disperse them.

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *