Cantona Kicks Out
The age of 9 was a huge year for me in my development as a football fan. Up until then I had really followed from afar, caught the odd game on TV when I could and learnt a little bit from comics and magazines - Roy of the Rovers and Match were my reads of choice. Then the USA ‘94 World Cup happened and everything changed for me. I evolved from a casual follower into a rabid fan. Despite the annoyance of a time difference, I watched as much as possible, from Diana Ross’s woeful penalty at the opening ceremony to Roberto Baggio’s equally dismal effort to allow Brazil to win for the 4th time, and I was blown away by the spectacle, the wonderful fans and the amazing talents of Romario, Baggio, Klinsmann, Brolin, Hagi and Stoichkov et al. At the end of the final penalty shoot out, once Baggio’s despair was over, I couldn’t wait for more action. The Premier League campaign would be starting soon and I was determined to follow as closely as possible.
There was lots to learn and much to catch up on but one man had caught my attention in the FA Cup Final the previous season and I couldn’t wait to see what he would do next. That man was Manchester United’s Eric Cantona.
As a fledgling Liverpool fan I shouldn’t have liked Cantona, saviour of our biggest enemy, but I just couldn’t help myself. Something about the man - the arrogance, the French flair, the upturned collar - just drew me towards watching him and admiring everything that he did.
His presence was incredible and everything seemed to go through him. I didn’t get to watch him every week but when his team’s highlights came on, more often than not there would be at least one moment of genius. Some of the goals he scored were just brilliant, in my opinion capped off by his run and then audacious chip against Sunderland. The celebration that followed said it all, just standing soaking it in in all of his glory. No run to the corner, no somersaults, just a look that said ‘Yes, that was me!’
As well as being a maverick on the pitch, the man himself was just as interesting and captivating off it, perplexing the press with indecipherable quotes and having a notoriously surly nature.
At the time, I was completely unaware of his past disciplinary issues in France - bust ups with team mates and managers amongst other incidents - although it was evident that this man marched to the beat of his own drum and didn’t always fall into line with everyone else. However, if Sir Alex needed someone to turn a game and provide a spark, more often than not, Cantona was the man. The team played through the maverick and although they continued to win trophies long after he was gone, without him, it is debatable whether the run would have got going in the first place.
Despite the trophies, the plaudits and the magnificent goals though, Cantona, like Gerrard, will perhaps always be most remembered for a more controversial moment, one completely different in nature to the slip, but one that would cost his team just as dearly.
As I was only 9 at the time, and, as it was a midweek evening, I hadn’t actually been watching Cantona’s United playing live but was certainly made aware of it from the morning news and it was all that everyone was talking about in the playground the next day. Usually we spent time recreating (or attempting to) goals that our heroes had scored, but on this day there was a different type of mimicking going on - The Kung-Fu Kick.
It was incident unlike any I had been aware of previously. I followed the coverage as closely as I could from that point and have revisited the incident many times since to more greatly appreciate its significance.
Football fans pay a great deal of money to support their teams, buy merchandise, go to matches and so on and due to this, they rightly expect the clubs that they follow and the players that are paid very high wages to perform.
There has also always been an element of banter between opposition fans, chants to goad each other, celebrate past glories and so on. The same has been true of fans towards players but this is where the waters can sometimes become murkier.
There will always be banter, things said in frustration and to wind people up, but there are also elements of fan bases who seem to feel like that because they pay their money, they have the right to say whatever they like towards players with no repercussion or recourse whatsoever. This is not, has not been, and never will be the case. Yes, these players get paid incredible amounts of money to entertain us and drive our teams forward, and yes, it can at times be very frustrating when players don’t give their all or go through bad patches of form, and yes, there will always be certain opposition players who seem to have a tendency to rub fans up the wrong way but that doesn’t mean that social decency and respect goes right out of the window.
Racism has long been an issue in football. I have seen videos of bananas being thrown, monkey chants being chorused and banners being displayed and have felt as badly about it as anyone else. I have been in stadiums where stereotypes are continually used to lambast players of all different nationalities and races and, although this is usually a minority, that doesn’t make it right. There is a line that is still being crossed too often and as of yet, there still appears to be no clear solution. I will not go into this topic in more detail here as much has been said with much more authority than mine previously but, at the end of the day, players are human beings and have the right to basic respect and decency just like everyone else.
Couple all of this with the fact that since the turn of the 90s, the expansion of TV coverage and news, the influx of money into the sport, the age of celebrity and eventually the rise of social media, players come under far more scrutiny than ever before and find it difficult to do anything or go anywhere without being pestered in some way.
For a player like Cantona, certainly one of those who by nature would irk opposition fans and also one who had shown himself to be short-tempered in the past, this could become even more difficult and there would always be those who would take any chance they could to prod and provoke.
The incident in question happened on a cold night towards the end of January 1995 when Manchester United were playing away to Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park.
The game hadn’t been a classic and by the end of the first half, the United players and coaching staff had become somewhat frustrated by the strong-arm tactics used by some of the Palace team, and, the failure of the referee, Alan Wilkie, to do anything significant about it.
In the 49th minute, Cantona, clearly still riled up from the first half, went hard into a tackle on Richard Shaw and the referee did finally do something. He sent Cantona off.
Cantona, disbelieving at first, stayed on the pitch as the players surrounded Wilkie but eventually started to walk. Cameras moved away from Frenchman and back to the United players still talking to the referee but immediately panned back to show the unbelievable scenes of Cantona pulling himself away from a member of the United back room team that he had been walking down the touchline with and launching himself, foot first, kung-fu style at one of the Crystal Palace fans in the front row. Once he’d untangled himself, kicking out again in the process, he stood up, moved forward once more, and landed a strong right hook on the same fan.
Disbelief was an understatement and more players piled over as Cantona was escorted down the touchline by the staff, stewards and Peter Schmeichel.
In fairly short order, things on the pitch were calmed down and the game was finished but the drama certainly wasn’t over. Headlines had already been written and the fallout was to come.
Questions had to be answered - Why had Cantona done this and what was going to be done next?
Video evidence gives a pretty clear explanation as to why. Matthew Simmons, the Crystal
Palace fan in question, had rushed down at least 10 rows to launch his tirade at Cantona. The footage shows the vitriol that his body language displayed. Amongst other things, it is widely believed that he told Cantona to “F**k off back to France you French b*st**d.” It is also claimed that he called Cantona’s mother a “French w**re.”
At this point, Cantona had clearly had enough, which is when he launched his unbelievable attack. The reason that his actions were so significant, on top of the extent of their nature, was that it was a point where someone had finally shown that they had taken enough and wouldn’t accept what was being done or said to them.
The question of what was going to be done next was a little more complicated.
Manchester United were initially cautious in doling out punishment, on lawyer’s advice, waiting a couple of days before banning Cantona for the remainder of the season and fining him two weeks wages.
Opinion in the public was also somewhat split. Many of the papers initially took the moral high ground and lambasted Cantona for his actions, but some lauded him for standing up for himself and the United fans, as well as a significant portion of others, stood by him. Many players also quietly backed the Frenchman.
The Magistrates Court did not show the same sympathy, sentencing Cantona to two weeks in prison, although this was later overturned on appeal. His ban was also extended by the FA the October 1st meaning he would miss the start of the next season too. Coincidentally, his return match would come at Old Trafford against my beloved Liverpool, both assisting and scoring in a 2-2 draw. That will teach me for appreciating one of the enemy!
And what did the man himself have to say about his most notorious moment? This part of the story is almost as famous as the incident itself in helping to create the air of mystery surrounding the player. With the media gathered in front of him following his hearing, Cantona, calm and assured as ever, simply said, “When the seagulls follow the trawler, it’s because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea. Thank you.”
Eric Cantona - wonderful footballer, enigmatic personality, unwitting crusader and confuser of millions. Brilliant
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