Tottenham’s Dele Alli’s middle finger, another overblown incident

Mauricio Pochettino on Thursday defended Dele Alli for flipping the bird at former teammate Kyle Walker while on England duty earlier in the week, and rightly so. 

Too much has been made of the incident, let alone Alli’s supposed impetuous temperament. Boiled down, Alli is a 21-year-old kid taking the piss out of a former colleague and friend. You might have to go back, way back to remember what you were doing at that tender age, but I imagine it was a far-cry worse.

I completely understand that Alli is perpetually under the media spotlight and needs to act accordingly. But come on, is it really incumbent upon FIFA to consider banning Spurs’ dynamic midfielder from international duty?

The gaffer doesn’t think so and millions of Tottenham and England fans tend to agree. You might cite bias for their impassioned grumblings. You might also, however, refer to common sense to find the correct judgement.

This, in his pre-match press conference yesterday, is what Pochettino had to say about the incident:

“When I was a player, worse things happened on the pitch,” Pochettino said. “But they never appeared on the TV. I remember one day, I was playing for Newell’s Old Boys, a striker spat at me and it all went in my mouth. Not one camera saw that!

“Afterwards, I killed him! My reaction was to [pull a punch],” he added, gesturing. “And I touched him. But at that moment, the ref said, ‘Oooooh’ and me, [he pulls his punch]. So the punch was not with power. The referee said to me: ‘Little kids will say what are you doing?

“I said, ‘Sorry, sorry.’ The referee said, ‘You and you, yellow cards.’

“But that is the era today in football — a lot of cameras. In my period, it was one in the middle and two more behinds the goals. Now, it’s more about control of the gestures and the behaviour that happens on the pitch. It’s good, it’s evolution.

“But at the same time, that gesture is not important. It was a joke. It’s true that it’s not the best example but it’s not a big issue. He doesn’t deserve to be banned by FIFA.”

And he’s right on the money with his assertions. I know I’ve condemned the modern game – for altogether different reasons – in previous rants, but I can’t gnaw on my tongue to prevent this outburst. It’s just too tempting.

Of course Alli should know better. But it was all in jest. And even if it wasn’t, doesn’t Walker deserve substantially worse than a mere flip of the bird?

Coming from the most corrupt sports governing body in the world, wouldn’t it be rich – and repulsively hypocritical – if they decide to make an example of Alli for a negligible transgression?

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I wouldn’t put it past them, for this is FIFA, the governing body whose former president was forced to resign over alleged corruption charges. They also granted Russia and Qatar – a country whose heat eclipses 50 degrees celsius during summer months – the right to host the World Cup. Oh, and I won’t even get started on former FIFA vice president and CONCACAF president Jeffrey Webb, who, years after being convicted of accepting excessively large bribes, is still awaiting sentencing.

While these events have nothing to do with Alli’s middle finger, it’s necessary to point out the kind of monstrous beast presiding over his laughable transgression. And yet again, the mainstream media is culpable for exacerbating an inconsequential occurrence between two mates.