January 25, 1995, 30 years ago: A shocking moment occurs in English soccer's Premier League. It involves the most popular, and possibly the best, player on the League's best team.
The Premier League's 1st season was 1992-93. It replaced the old Football League Division One, which Manchester United hadn't won since 1967. They had a near-miss in 1992, the last season of the old League. Manager Alex Ferguson was building a team around youth, with players known as "Fergie's Fledglings."
But the fanbase was antsy. They wanted to win now, having not won the League in 26 years, with only FA Cup wins in 1977, '83, '85 and '90 in the meantime. The last of these was Ferguson's only trophy since taking over as manager in 1986.
So early in the 1992-93 season, he purchased forward Eric Cantona from the defending Champions, Leeds United. Although the rivalry between "Man U" and Leeds is a nasty one -- with echoes of the ancient rivalry between the Duchies of Lancaster (to which the region of Greater Manchester once belonged) and York (Leeds United remains the biggest team in Yorkshire).
But Cantona, a man whose great talent was exceeded by his ego, had made a nuisance of himself at Elland Road, and manager Howard Wilkinson -- who, through the 2023-24 season, remains the last title-winning manager in the English top flight who was born and raised in England -- sold him just to get rid of a headache. The results were brilliant: Man United won the 1993 League title by 10 points over Birmingham team Aston Villa, and the 1994 League title by 8 points over Lancashire team Blackburn Rovers.
Unfortunately, like hockey's New York Rangers in 1994, baseball's Boston Red Sox in 2004, football's New England Patriots in 2002, college basketball's Duke University in 1991, and English soccer's Chelsea in 2005, United had a fanbase that turned a long period of struggle into a burst of arrogance. After years as sore losers, they were completely obnoxious as winners. As a result, while, like many other newly winning teams, they gained a great number of bandwagon fans, even more fans began hating them. Cantona became a target of their ire, and the media labeled him "Le Brat."
But United fans adored him, calling him "King Eric." Many of them cut their hair very short like him. When playing in their neighborhood games, they turned their collars up like him. Men with a "unibrow" saw that he had one, and were no longer ashamed of their own. He was the latest in a string of United stars who had worn the Number 7 shirt, including George Best and Bryan Robson. The string would later extend to David Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo.
On January 22, 1995, United, at their home ground of Old Trafford, in Salford just outside the city limits of Manchester, beat Blackburn, 1-0. Cantona scored the goal, his 12th of the season. Blackburn were in 1st place, but United thus closed to within 1 point of them. (Many British clubs have "United" in their name, but the one in Manchester is the only one that usually gets called only "United." More often, they are called "Man United" or "Man U" for short. People who don't like them call them "ManUre," among other things.)
Three days later, United played away to Crystal Palace, at Selhurst Park in South London. Palace manager Alan Smith -- not to be confused with either the star Arsenal forward of the time, or a later Leeds-to-Man United midfielder -- told defender Richard Shaw to stick to Cantona "like a rash." After a series of unpunished tackles by Shaw in the first half, Cantona said to the referee, Alan Wilkie, "No yellow cards, then?" Coach Ferguson was more blunt, yelling at the referee: "Why don't you do your fucking job?"
Angry at the lack of consequences for Palace's apparent misdeeds, in the 2nd half, Cantona literally kicked Shaw's ass. One yellow card is a warning. Two yellow cards, and a player is thrown out of the game, and suspended for the next game in the competition. For his action, Cantona was given a straight red card, and was thrown out. The suspension for a straight red is a minimum of the next 3 games in the competition, but the governing body -- the Premier League, the Football Association if it's in the FA Cup, UEFA if it's in a European tournament, and so on -- can make it longer.
Cantona headed off toward the tunnel leading to the locker rooms. Then, he ran toward the stands, jumped, and launched a kick that landed in a fan's ribs.
The fans went wild, and booed the hell out of him. The game ended 1-1, and it was arguably the highlight of Palace's season, as they finished 18th, and were relegated.
At first, before the English media found out what exactly provoked him, they turned on Cantona, as they often did on players who fell into the category of "Johnny Foreigner." At a press conference, he said, "When the seagulls follow the trawler, it's because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea."
Nobody could figure out what he meant, and some thought that something had been lost in the translation in his head, from his thinking in French to his speaking in English. What he meant was, "You, the English media, are the seagulls; I am the trawler; and a story that makes me look bad is sardines being thrown into the sea."
Some people wanted Cantona banned from the sport for life. Others would have been satisfied with a ban from English football and his deportation back to France. At first, he was fined £20,000 by his team, and a further £10,000 by the FA. On March 23, he was criminally charged with assault, and pleaded guilty. He received a two-week prison sentence, although he was freed on bail pending appeal. A week later, the sentence was thrown out, and he was sentenced to 120 hours of community service, which was spent coaching children at United's training ground.
Cantona had been Captain of the French national team, but was stripped of the captaincy, and never played for the national team again. And the FA extended his domestic ban until September 30, meaning that not only would he miss the rest of the 1994-95 season, but the first few weeks of the 1995-96 season.
United had won both the Premier League and the FA Cup in 1993-94, known in England as winning "The Double," and were still in the hunt to do it again. Instead, they lost the League title to Blackburn by 1 point, on the last day of the season, and lost the FA Cup Final to Liverpool team Everton. In other words, Cantona's moment of lost temper cost the team both trophies.
Then, a journalist actually did his job, and found out what really happened. When Cantona was sent off, Palace fan Matthew Simmons, then 20 years old, ran down 11 rows toward the front row, and yelled at Cantona, "You dirty French bastard! Fuck off back to France, you French motherfucker!"
In fact, while he was French by birth, Cantona was not ethnically French. His mother's family was Catalan, from Barcelona; and his father's family was Italian, from the island of Sardinia. His grandfather had fought with Italian troops under Francisco Franco in the Spanish Civil War, part of "Franco's Italian Army" (the military unit from which a group of fans of the NFL's Pittsburgh Steelers, overlooking that unit's fascist ties, took as their name to honor running back Franco Harris), was wounded in combat, and was taken to Marseille, France, where the family had lived since.
So while he wasn't French by blood, Cantona was a French citizen, and he was proud of this. So he went after the fan who yelled it. Perhaps Simmons' greatest mistake wasn't his bigotry, but yelling long enough so that Cantona knew exactly who to kick. If Simmons had only yelled, "You dirty French bastard!" Cantona might have gotten the wrong guy.
Instead, Simmons was properly exposed as a racist. Indeed, he was a member and rally attender of not one, but two fascist groups in Britain: The British National Party, and the National Front. Three years before the kung fu kick, Simmons had been convicted of a violent attempted robbery of a Sri Lankan immigrant. With this being made public, Cantona regained his hero status. Even people who hated Manchester United saluted him for his stand.
And so, Simmons was arrested, and went on trial for provoking the attack. Simmons claimed he had shouted, "Off! Off! Off! It's an early bath for you, Mr. Cantona!" But the prosecution produced witnesses who heard him call Cantona "You dirty French bastard," "You French motherfucker" and "You French animal," and his mother a "French whore." Simmons was found guilty, was handed a £500 fine for abusive behavior, and also received a year-long stadium ban -- but avoided jail time for the charge.
Following the the verdict, Simmons launched himself over the bench at the prosecutor, Jeffrey McCann, kicking and grabbing him. McCann, who was 55 at the time, was dealing with his final case before retirement. He managed to wriggle free, but looked terrified and disheveled. Court staff took Simmons away in handcuffs, as he yelled, "I am innocent! I swear on the Bible!" He was jailed for a week for that attack -- half as long as the initial sentence on Cantona -- and fined £500, plus £200 in legal costs.
Cantona returned to Manchester United in October 1995, and led them to another Double in 1996, and another League title in 1997. Then, at age 31, he retired from the sport. The next season, United did not win any trophies, although Ferguson did rebuild, and managed them to win the League title the next 3 seasons, and 9 of the next 15.
What happened to Simmons? Crystal Palace banned him from Selhurst Park for life. He was fired from his job. Even his family turned their backs on him. In 2010, he was the father of a 13-year-old son, and a salesman named Stuart Cooper met that son, and mockingly told him what his father had done. Enraged, Simmons assaulted Cooper.
The following year, in court, he said, "I accept the guilty verdict. I will make sure I will never come before these courts ever again." He told the judge he had a full-time job with the Territorial Army (which the British government renamed the Army Reserve in 2014), and he hoped to be deployed. He was sentenced to 6 months in prison, which was suspended, and 150 hours of community service. That's the most recent information I can find on him.
Like many former athletes, Cantona became an actor. Years later, he said of the incident, "I have one regret: I would've loved to have kicked him even harder." As of January 25, 2025, Cantona is 58 years old; presuming Simmons is still alive, he would be 50. And, in the annals of English "football," there has never been another incident like the one between them.
No comments:
Post a Comment