Why Tottenham's King Should Be Banned.

Geoff Hurst has come out in support of 'Arry's tough stance on Ledley King's drunken brawl, backing the pledge of the Great Twitcher to discipline the Tottenham and Not Available For England defender. Hurst, of course, knows all about the drinking culture in football, having shared a dressing room for many years with the great but far from tea total Bobby Moore and, for a brief time, with his drinking partner in chief, Jwimmy Gweaves.

Quite how 'Arry thinks he is going to stop it, however, is a mystery. Reading the Tottenham blogs (without bothering to post abuse), it appears that Ledley is well known for enjoying a few jars of an evening; and I don't see him changing that habit, whatever 'Arry might have to say on the matter. Let's face it, Tottenham play the guy without any cartilage in his knees so they are not going to drop him for getting boozed up are they?

'Arry is sounding off, of course, and there will be no action, just as Zola expressed disapproval but did nothing about Carlton's arrest for drink driving nor Tristan's drink induced car accident. These footballers are a law unto themselves; much like our MPs.

The only way forward is for the FA and Premier League to take a stand. I would like to see a professional code of conduct introduced, whereby players found to have brought the game into disrepute are banned for a substantial number of games and fined punitively. The clubs are not going to shoot themselves in the foot by banning key players, nor by upsetting them to the point where they demand a move. So the professional bodies responsible for the game have to take a stand. If King now faced a six game ban and loss of salary over the period of the ban, he might think twice before going on the lash again. And the clubs might just take a more active role in demanding that professional standards are met to prevent losing key players for off the field misdemeanors.