History Vindicates King Eric

Do you remember this?

King Eric Disciplining An Errant Crystal Palace Fan

It happened in January 1995 when "King Eric" Cantona was verbally abused by a Crystal Palace fan called Matthew Simmons, just after he had been sent off for kicking a Crystal Palace Defender Richard Shaw.

 

Cantona responded to the verbal abuse by kicking and punching Simmons, after jumping into the crowd ...... Cantona was banned from playing for eight months, and a two week prison sentence (reduced on appal to 150 hours community service), and United fell a point short of Blackburn Rovers for the Premier League title (the only season they didn't win the league when Cantona was a player). 

 

After the incident, Cantona was stripped of the French Captaincy, and never again played for France thus missing out on the European and World Cup triumphs. Simmons, who had a prior conviction for racial abuse, and had previously attended several National Front rallies, was given only a £500 fine for abusive behaviour and also received a year-long stadium ban, plus a token one week prison sentence for his an assault on a court official.

Now why am I raking this up again? Well by some strange synchronicity they have both been back in the news recently ..... King Eric  has been appointed director of soccer at the relaunched United States iconic  football club New York Cosmos. The NY Cosmos, who included Brazil star Pele in the 70s, folded in 1985, but plans are afoot to resurrect the brand and create a US super club .... Typically he described it as "A wonderful project. It's kind of a mix between football and art,"

Matthew Simmons was also on the news on Saturday, when the Sun Newspaper reported that he had been arrested again, and charged with assault after a fight at a children's football match .... its alleged that he had been involved in a fracas, following an argument while watching his son play last August (the wheels of justice run very very slow in the UK) ..... he apparently claims he's the victim in the matter (where have I heard that claim before?). 

 

He denied *assault at Kingston Crown Court ..... his alleged victims son is said to have witnessed the assault at Peckham FC in South London, and Simmons has been bailed to return to court for trial.

History has a way of vindicating characters and events given time .......

 

*Update: He was found guilty of the assault and was given a six-month jail term, suspended for two years, as well as 150 hours of unpaid work in the community at Kingston Crown Court and ordered to pay £1,000 in compensation to his victim and £2,000 in prosecution costs.