Anthony
In Brendan we trust.
Jesus. You'd think that being thousands of miles away from Swansea would prevent some of us from having the blinkers on, but apparently that's not the case. Sure, the ball popped out afterwards. Doesn't mean he didn't nail the kid with his shin. I don't give a shit if the kid is 10 or 17, what he did was wrong and I'm sure he won't be a ball boy for Swansea any more. The extra time that Hazard thought he was going to gain (what, maybe 30 seconds?) now looks inconsequential compared to the absolute stupidity of KICKING A DOWNED KID. Fuck, if he did that to one of the players on the pitch it'd be a straight red.
It's common practice in the league for ball boys to be no older than 16. This kid was already "retired" in that sense, he was called in to work the game because of all the snow and the regular couldn't make it in, so this was a one time only deal. He claims he was told by the club to waste time when possible, and Laudrup basically confirmed that post match, and frankly it's common in situations like this according to those who have been in the game.
The kid was an idiot and could've done a better job at making his time wasting not so obvious. But Hazard is a fucking dolt. Plain and simple. Defending this is like defending Eric Cantona kicking a fan...