Marseille have threatened to take legal action against Nigel de Jong for his reckless challenge on Newcastle’s Hatem Ben Arfa, which left the winger facing a long spell on the sidelines.

And while they’re quite right in their pursuit to have the culprit punished, much of the blame must go to managers and the authorities who are supposed to be policing the game, but who are neglecting it.

 

De Jong is no stranger to controversy and the whole world watched in horror as he committed not just a bad tackle, but an assault on Xabi Alonso in the World Cup Final.

It was the type of offence that, if carried out on the street, could land the culprit about three months in jail.

But he didn’t even receive a yellow card on the pitch as referee Howard Webb stood idly by and saw nothing wrong with it.

There was no retrospective punishment, so De Jong was completely exonerated from any wrong doing for his attack.

That gave him the green light to do it again. And he did. Now Newcastle United will have to do without a talented player for several months at least.

Yet again de Jong escaped punishment on the pitch (he didn’t even get booked to rub salt into the wounds) and he was defended by assistant manager Brian Kidd who perversely claimed he ‘is not that type of player’.

The sense of irony wasn’t lost on Mark Van Bommel either, who backed his international team-mate by insisting de Jong shouldn’t alter his ways.

At least Holland national coach Bert Van Marwijk dropped the midfielder from the Dutch squad for their Euro 2012 qualifiers this month – a bit of a shift considering it was van Marwijk who set his side up to be overly aggressive in the World Cup. But sometimes double-standards pays-off and at least Holland’s opposition this month can play without the fear of de Jong’s assaults. They’ll just have to worry about Van Bommel instead.