Chelsea’s Eden Hazard: Ban stays at three games for ball boy clash

Eden Hazard’s three-match ban for kicking a ball boy in Chelsea’s League Cup clash against Swansea City will be not be increased, an independent panel ruled on Thursday.

The Football Association had attempted to extend the standard three-game sanction for violent conduct.

However, the west Londoners managed to persuade an independent regulatory commission that the supension was sufficient.

The Belgian playmaker lost his patience with the 17-year-old, who held on to the ball, as the Blues slipped to a second-leg defeat in the Capital One Cup encounter at the Liberty Stadium on 23 January. The player had denied the charge.

After the incident, the Belgian told ChelseaTV: “The boy put his whole body onto the ball and I was just trying to kick the ball and I think I kicked the ball and not the boy. I apologise.

“The ball boy came in the changing room and we had a quick chat and I apologised and the boy apologised as well, and it is over. Sorry.”