Kinda NFR - Craig Bellamy on the Riise golf club incident

[EJL]

Craig Bellamy's autobiography, GoodFella, lays bare one of the most notorious incidents in recent English football history.

In February 2007, Liverpool travelled to Portugal for a five-day training camp to prepare for their Champions League second round tie against Barcelona.

On the last night on the Algarve, Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez allowed the players out for a meal but it was disrupted by an argument between Craig Bellamy and John Arne Riise, whose nickname was Ginge...

Ginge was a nice enough lad. He was a bit of a child. He was insanely ­competitive. If there was a competition to see who could ping a shot against the crossbar, he was always mad keen to win it. People used to make a joke of it and say: 'I bet Ginge could do that'. That night at Vale do Lobo, I was sitting with Steve Finnan, who was my ­room-mate, Sami Hyypia and Ginge. I told Ginge he had to sing a song. I might have said it a couple of times. He said he didn't want to do it. I mentioned it again and he snapped. He got s****y about it. He got up and started shouting.
"Listen," he yelled, "I'm not singing and I've had enough of you banging on about it." Sami told me to ignore him and Ginge left fairly soon afterwards. But as the evening wore on and I had more to drink, it started eating away at me. At that time, the way I was, I didn't know how to control my emotions if someone disrespected me in front of the rest of the players. I am one of the worst people on drink. It doesn't agree with me. After a while, I told Finnan we were going. I told him I wanted to sort it out with Ginge.
"I'm not having that," I said to Finny.
"What are you on about?" he said.
"That special one f****** p****, he ain't speaking to me like that," I said. Finny told me to ignore him. He told me to forget it and go to bed.
"I'm not ignoring him," I said. "I'm going to go to his room."
Finny told me to calm down.
"No, let's go to our room," he said. He was trying to humour me, like a warder with a madman. We did go back to our room but I still couldn't let it go. We had a shared lounge with bedrooms that were upstairs. Our golf clubs were in the lounge. I'd got one out as I was stewing over what Ginge had done. It was an eight iron. I started taking a few practice swings with it.
"Let's go and see him now," I said.

I just wanted to wind Ginge up a bit. He had tried it on with me once or twice in training. He had given me a little nudge in the back. I'd just look at him and think 'F*** off, Ginge.' So we got round to his room and I knocked on the door. There was no answer. So I tried the door and it was open. I let myself in and turned the light on. Ginge was in bed. He was facing away from me and covering his eyes with his hands because the lights had been switched on. I just whacked him across the ­backside with the club. You couldn't really call it a swing. It was just a thwack, really. If I'd taken a proper swing, I would have hit the ceiling with my backlift. Finny, by the way, was hiding behind the door at that point. Ginge panicked. He curled up in a ball with a blanket.
"You ever speak to me like that in front of people again," I told him, "I will wrap this round your head."
"Listen, I didn't mean it like that," he said.
"Yes you f****** did," I barked at him.
"No, no, I didn't," he insisted.
"Yes, you did," I told him again. "That's a couple of times you've pulled that f****** stunt on me and it won't be happening any more." I was warming to my theme now, like people who have had too much to drink usually do. I threatened him a few times.
"And if you've got a problem with any of this, come and see me in my room tomorrow," I told him. "Don't go moaning about it." I look back at what I did now and I cringe.
It was pathetic. It was stupidity of the highest level. It was drunken, bullying behaviour. Eventually, I left. As Finny and I were going back to our room, the coach pulled up outside and all the players poured off it. They bumped into us in the corridor and, not knowing anything of what had just gone on, piled into our lounge. It had been a big night. Nobody even noticed the golf club in my hand. Or if they did, they didn't mention it. So the night out continued.

There's some more of the extract on the Mirror's website about other incidents on that same trip: http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/craig-bellamy-autobiography-golf-club-1922686

[KP_FFC]

well, i cant wait for the next fulham - cardiff match

[Berserker]

Bellamy sounds a right ahole

[Logicalman]

Bellamy sounds a right ahole

Sounds? He is, has a right midget syndrome about him as well.

[BarryP]

Oh come on! How many of us didn't want to swat Riise's arse last season an tell him to wake up?

[RaySmith]

You wouldn't want him at Fulham would you ? - Oh, wait a minute - didn't Hughes try to get sign him when he took over?

[Holders]

Horrible little man - isn't it about time he retired?

[Riverside]

Yes a B is a pain.
However would not like to have to try and mark him out of a game .
Always been v effective

[sipwell]

Bellamy looks like an a-hole first class, but you have to admire his insanity for writing all of this down (read: let somebody write this down) in a book...

[LordNelson]

I always thought of him as an a-hole as well, but he doesn't try to justify his actions here. 

[BraveDaveFFC]

Bellamy should crawl back under the stone where he first came!! I'd love to punch the little twit's lights out!! Gutless little moron.

[michaelread]

"if i had taken a real swing, my backswing would have hit the ceiling"

yeah, sure craig. suuuuuuuuure it would have.

[Burt]

All a bit pathetic really. Handbags more than golf clubs.

[Holders]

"if i had taken a real swing, my backswing would have hit the ceiling"

yeah, sure craig. suuuuuuuuure it would have.

Maybe it was a very low ceiling.

[EJL]

He just sounds like a bully. Simple. Despite his many tattoos and preference for skintight clothing, Riise's a shy guy.

[ron]

Apparently Bellamy does have a charitable side with his aid in the third (or rather developing) world, but if drink took me that way, I would never touch another drop. It sounds as if he has seen some sort of sense though.

Oh, and Cheers ! (sound of glass clinking)

[Fulham Tup North]

So because a guy doesn't want to sing a song you go to his hotel room when he is asleep and attack him with a golf club?
Yes, that's normal behaviour...... but only for someone like Bellamy.
What a waste of oxygen.

[epsomraver]

So because a guy doesn't want to sing a song you go to his hotel room when he is asleep and attack him with a golf club?
Yes, that's normal behaviour...... but only for someone like Bellamy.
What a waste of oxygen.

:plus one: my thoughts exactly, should have listened to Steve Finnan, now there is a true gent

[gezkc]

I've always thought Bellamy was a twit, and this story confirms it. What a nasty piece of work.