Should Wayne Rooney be banned for swearing?

/ Editor / 05 April 2011 / 1

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At the weekend, Wayne Rooney added swearing into Sky cameras to his list of crimes and misdemeanours. With the FA considering whether to ban him, Dan Thomas and Max Liu discuss the Manchester United star's case.

Yes

‘Wayne Rooney is Wayne Rooney’. No, not a blindingly obvious statement of fact but the tired defence offered by lazy pundits after yet another indiscretion from the potty-mouthed striker.

Another cliché trotted out when Rooney misbehaves is that ‘if you take that away, he’s half the player’.

What utter tosh. What does screaming obscenities into a camera have to do with football ability?

By all means play with an edge to your game but, as Paul Gascoigne proved in the 1991 Cup Final, go too far and you’ll soon end up on a downward spiral.

The Professional Footballers Association is of course standing up for one of its members but describing Rooney’s antics as “a spontaneous celebration” is simply not a credible argument.

Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp – on hand with a juicy quote as ever – rightly described Rooney as a “silly boy”.

“Why is Rooney so angry?” he said. “I don't know why. I just don't remember Bobby Charlton doing it when he smashed one in for United from 30 yards or Jimmy Greaves when he scored a goal."

For me, the debate is not about Rooney swearing into the camera which, in itself, was not the worst crime ever committed on a football pitch, but the disintegration of discipline in the game.

How many times has Rooney – or John Terry, or Ashley Cole for that matter - called the ref all the names under the sun and not even been admonished, let alone booked?
The time is right – following yet another re-launch of the Respect campaign – for the authorities to take a stand.

Banning Rooney may seem draconian to some but if it makes players think twice about their actions, it will be no bad thing.

No

Is the most explosive talent Britsh football has produced for two decades really to be banned for swearing into a camera? Like, WTF?

Rooney's expletives were aimed at nobody, they were the sound of one man's release from a mediocre season, self-doubt and frustration; they were the sound of triumph.

When a player of Rooney's intensity succeeds, he has overcome himself, his extraordinarily high standards and the high hopes he invests in every game. Thomas Mann said, "A writer is somebody for whom writing is harder than it is for everybody else." Perhaps the same applies to football and footballers.

Rooney showed how much his hat-trick meant to him. Do we want detached, temperate professionals or do we want seething warriors, artists of sound and fury to whom football signifies everything?

For a man who is consistently labeled inarticulate, Rooney expressed himself with the succinctness that those who judge him would struggle to muster.

A well-placed expletive is not a sign of degeneracy but evidence of a feel for language. That should never be condemned. We’re all trying to find the right words. At Upton Park, Wayne found them.

The first time I went to Old Trafford, the referee was George Courtenay. As much as Bryan Robson's volley and Mark Hughes' header, the Stretford End's alliterative barracking of the man in black was the reason why I fell for United. It was my fever pitch moment, exhilirating and illicit, which is what fires kids' imaginations and ambitions.

Rooney loves his work and still believes that there are things at stake on the pitch. For the FA to punish him would prove that they are irrelevant and out of touch. If they want respect they should give fans some and not assume that we need our heroes to be squeaky clean non-entities.

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shab | 08 April 2011

this is not right time 4 ban rooney jst give him another punish instad of ban we are fina games plz.