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[Alex]

From Todays NLP:

Ashton United have an anxious three-day wait to discover if they face ruin after a former opponent sued the club and one of their ex-defenders for a combined total of £100,000.
On Tuesday Marcus Hallows, Now 35, Will find out if his four-year waitfor compensation against Dan White and Unibond Premier Club is successful.
White's tackle in the Confrence north match against Altrincham in march 2005 forced the former Leigh and Chorley forward to reire after fracturing his tibia and fibula. He almost died after his heart stopped on the way to hospital.
Hallows is Suing Ashton for a five-figure sum for potential loss of earnings, and Ashton say they will not survive should Hallows - who is also an Elvis impersonator - Win at Manchester Crown Court.
United will fight his claim because they beleive it could open the floodgates for an explosion of cases which could throw the grass-roots game into turmoil. Ashton say there former player White has been unable to play for rivals Retford after becoming unwell because of the stress of the trial. They hinted that plan to counter-sue Hallows should his case be thrown out.
United chairman David Aspinall said " Tuesday is D-day for us - we will know at the end of the hearing if we can carry on. We would not likely survive if the finding is against us. We could be wound - up, that is a genuine possibility. We have to battle this as well for the good of football. Our game would change on Tuesday should he win - this is a landmark case that would alter football at a semi-professional level. The consequences would be huge. Weare doing this for every Non-League club as well as trying to keep ours in existence. It is a horrible feeling and we cannot wait for this whole episode to be over."
Hallows will call former Tottenham star Gary Mabbutt, forced to retire through injury in 1998, but has no Video evidence to back-up his claims. The Court will instead see Photographs from the match five seasons ago with former referee Jeff Winter on hand to support the case of Ashton United and White, 29.
Aspinall added: " Dan White has been unable to play and has been very unwell with the pressure of the trial."
At the time Altrincham boss Graham Heathcote described the tackle as no worse than hundreds seen every weekend.

[Dougals Dad]

I'm in two minds on this one (I normally struggle to be in 1 mind over anything!).

Undoubtedly I feel Marcus should get some sort of compo for a significant loss of earningfs.

However, I certainly do NOT want to see a football club potentially go out of business for something they had little control over and I do not want to see a precedent being set as this will be another nail in the coffin of any defender trying to make a tackle (though I realise this one was particularly unskilled).

I seem to remember Liam MacKay had this to contend with in Dream Team!

[Timperley The Best]

whilst i feel sympathy for marcus i dont think he should just let a club go bust if he wins the compensation.

[Jezza]

Tough one...on the one hand ashton should have had insurance.....but maybe so should Marcus.

I'm sure the 'cote was being kind to the Ashton player at the time....it was a dreadful challenge....indeed it was the very fact it was so late that was the reason very few people including the ref saw it...what happened was that after shooting, marcus shooting foot returned to the ground at the very point the ashton player made contact...if his foot was still in the air there'd have been no damage as it was the foot in the ground that provided the resistance necessary.

I still cannot get over the fact that the ref watched the shot, watched the keeper save, watched the ball go for a throw in and after all that marcus was lying with a broken leg....I mean just what did the ref think could have happened?

I wish Marcus the best of luck...a vastly underrated consistent striker who lost the best years of his football career and suffered considerable pain because of the clumsiness of a unibond defender's challenge.

For the good of the game surely some compulsory insurance should be set up for this type of thing?

[Dougals Dad]

Tough one...on the one hand ashton should have had insurance.....but maybe so should Marcus.

I'm sure the 'cote was being kind to the Ashton player at the time....it was a dreadful challenge....indeed it was the very fact it was so late that was the reason very few people including the ref saw it...what happened was that after shooting, marcus shooting foot returned to the ground at the very point the ashton player made contact...if his foot was still in the air there'd have been no damage as it was the foot in the ground that provided the resistance necessary.

I still cannot get over the fact that the ref watched the shot, watched the keeper save, watched the ball go for a throw in and after all that marcus was lying with a broken leg....I mean just what did the ref think could have happened?

I wish Marcus the best of luck...a vastly underrated consistent striker who lost the best years of his football career and suffered considerable pain because of the clumsiness of a unibond defender's challenge.

For the good of the game surely some compulsory insurance should be set up for this type of thing?

Well said

[Darren]

Didn't another player of Alty do the same thing in 96 George Sheppard?? sued Bishop Auckland for some reason and they were in danger of going bust, Thats why we had all them Dickheads at the trophy game causing trouble....

[York Alty]

The PFA would no doubt have such a scheme for professional players, it's not beyoind the BSP and feeder leagues to instigate such a scheme. oh no hang on, it probably IS beyond the BSP!

Each club should have insurance to cover things like this to be honest. It's a contact sport, people get injured...some badly.

[SW]

To be honest I thought we did have insurance? Is there a maximum payout?

[Stockportalty]

I will never forget the cries of pain coming from our dressing room while Marcus was in there, it was agony to hear it. I would say that was my worst ever day at Moss Lane, but it could have been much worse, thanks to the work being done in the dressing room and the ambulance on the way to hospital Marcus is still alive, it doesn't bear thinking about what could have happened!!. I think there should be some acknowledgement of what he has suffered, but whether it should be so much that another club goes out of existance I'm not so sure.

[seasonticket]

I have every sympathy with Marcus. He is a really nice guy. I spoke to him on several occasions and he always seemed to be reasonably cheerful inspite of what had happened.
I do think that in these circumstances there should be some fund available for compensation.
As for going through the courts, I am not in favour. The eventual inevitable outcome of court cases going against players making tackles would ensure we ended up with a non contact, no tackling game. This would change football to such an extent that it would lose out as a spectator sport and probably far fewer people would want to play the game.

[casper]

to be honest, the courts are already aware that football is a sport where contact is expected, and sometimes injuries occur. What the court will be looking to find for marcus is whether the tackle was reckless, and severe injury forseeable as a result. There are cases where career ending tackles have severly been punished. Last year the courts awarded a former man utd youngster a couple million for a tackle that ended his career.

The bolton news has some updates from the case. Although no verdict is due yet.

http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/news/4794149.___Reckless_leg_break_tackle_ended_my_career___/

[casper]

Further update for anyone interested:

http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/news/4796163.Experts_divided_over_football_tackle/

Case has been adjourned until  monday.

[Jimmy Hill]

Instead of getting Gary Mabbut and Jeff Winter to pontificate about what happened by looking at photos, wouldn't it have been better to ask the opinion of some of those that actually saw the incident?

[York Alty]

I was on the Chequers End that day no more than 10 metres from  Marcus.  I THINK I saw the entire incident from start to finish.  1) I am an Alty fan so a defence barrister is going to claim that I have a bias 2) what we saw on the pitch is only part of the story I suspect 3) Eye witnesses are remarkably unreliable. 

Good Luck to Marcus and AUFC.

[casper]

Instead of getting Gary Mabbut and Jeff Winter to pontificate about what happened by looking at photos, wouldn't it have been better to ask the opinion of some of those that actually saw the incident?

you could try. What experience does anyone from that game have in reviewing these types of challenges? Also what are the relationships between those (supporters of either team) and the player? Im sure the majority of alty fans will say the tackle was appauling, disgrace and should have been punished at the time. However Ashton related people will point out that the tackle went unpunished, and it was a fair challenge.
That is why people with more experience such as Mabbut and Winter are being used as "expert" witnesses, they are the ones with the experience of reviewing the evidence of awful challenges. However it is very hard to interpret what happened from some photo's. At least we now have all our games recorded.
However i do not think a late feet up leg breaking challenge is "common place in football".