Interesting!

Honestly never heard of any! Was that professional HKO or Amateur?

Now Zaha's got a bit of green grass ahead of him here... and finds Ambrose... not a bad effort!!!!

Yep, think that has been well documented WE.

I suspect Andersen was doing nothing out of the ordinary by giving Nunez a tough time and using a bit of physicality and that Nunez's first attempts of sticking his head in Andersen's face was the initial reaction which provoked Andersen to (rightly) remonstrate somewhat and shove Nunez's outstretched arm which in turn led to 'the' headbutt.

Again, as has been mentioned by many, I am sure this has not gone unnoted by many a PL defender as an expose of Nunez's fragility and inability to handle a bit of 'rough-housing' and his 'red card' mishandling of the situation.

Now Zaha's got a bit of green grass ahead of him here... and finds Ambrose... not a bad effort!!!!

No would be my answer. That is part of that particular sport.

There is a difference between 'a bit of rough treatment' and an assault. Tackles in football can actually be a lot worse, there's been many a broken ankle, leg etc.

I'd argue a very strong 'ball and man' tackle is part of the sport and therefore not punishable however a Roy Keane-esque attempt to purely just hurt someone could very well be framed as an assault.

Although the law may not work that way I think most sensible thinking people could differentiate the difference between foul play and assault. A bowler may well throw an aggressive bouncer but equally off a more easily played ball a batsperson ( ) may well be able to smash a ball straight back at a bowler's cannister. Downing tools to throw hands would arguably be less dangerous for either but crosses a boundary.

Agree on tricky area but I think common sense would prevail although I acknowledge we are living in a post-common sense society.

Now Zaha's got a bit of green grass ahead of him here... and finds Ambrose... not a bad effort!!!!

Not sure if you have seen the video on twitter, but Anderson was all over him the whole time, pushing, pulling, using the dark arts, almost Latin in his approach to defending, Nuñez could say he was provoked. Imagine if someone pushed and barged you for 50 minutes. brilliant defending from Anderson though

I have the words 'It's a contact sport' ringing in my years from my youth.

To go with the analogy, if someone was dancing next to you on a dancefloor and kept bumping into you, flailing their arms about (as part of their 'dancing') for however long, whilst it may well provoke an incredible urge to hurt them deliberately, you would still be in trouble for any very deliberate assault. There's a difference between identifying someone as a c**t, cleverly getting back at them yourself and blatantly assaulting them. I actually had it once at an England game with some very Mancunian (not sure) sounding bods who were a bit feisty in getting in and getting caught in what I would call a 'shuffling war' as we jostled for space upon entering. Both sides were obviously peeved, my back had certainly arched, however the first to throw would have certainly be deemed the culprit of something more extreme.

Nothing Andersen did warranted any severe punishment either inside or outside of the playing field. It's a defenders job to stop, put off a striker or throw him off his game. Even if Nunez did a 'Zlatan-esque' elbow to the head in the guise of competing for a header, that would be of less condemnation than the incident.

Now Zaha's got a bit of green grass ahead of him here... and finds Ambrose... not a bad effort!!!!

Football is not A Contact Sport. never has been.
It's a Partial Contact sport, in that Contact is not in the Rules of the game(a la rugby), but it is Inevitable.

Strictly speaking all 'Contact' in football should be 'accidental'. That is why you can't go 'through a player' when tackling, and you should be 'playing the ball'.
The amount of Grappling/Tugging/holding/Barging and Hugging that goes on in a the Penalty areas is not really allowed, but is accepted for the flow of the game. That and it is too hard to officiate effectively.

"It was a Team effort, I guess it took all players working together to lose this one"