Having observed the incidents that have blighted English football over the past few weeks you would be forgiven for thinking you had gone to bed and woken up in the 1970s.

Rampant racism, sexist chanting, rival supporters fighting in the streets and pitch invasions complete with seat throwing – all disturbing hallmarks of an era we thought had been left behind for good.

Sadly none of this has really shocked me.

It is fairly obvious to anyone who has watched a game inside a stadium in recent years that the bad behaviour that was apparent in the past has not been entirely wiped out. It has merely been reduced, controlled and subdued.

There will always be thugs masquerading as fans, there will always be supporters with racist sentiments, there will always be men at matches who see women as little more than a sex object.

Not nearly as many as there were once were, admittedly. Only a fraction, in fact.

But just because they have been relatively quiet over the past couple of decades, doesn’t mean they have ceased to exist. The truth is they will never be completed eradicated from the sport.

Which suggests the recent outbreak of chaos is a result of football’s increasing complacency.

For a while now the authorities and the clubs themselves have started to assume the war had been won. Football went through a happy period where these incidents were almost unheard of and that led to a large degree of laurel resting.

Everyone was so busy patting each other on the back about how safe football was, they failed to notice that the evil undercurrent was still there, bubbling under the surface and growing in strength.

Hopefully these unsavoury few weeks will serve as a wake-up call and everybody will realise the dangers of letting your guard down against an enemy that is likely to be ever present.

Meanwhile, there was one recent incident that I thought was blown out of all proportion – the Jonny Evans-Papiss Cisse spitting competition.

Obviously none of us wants to watch two professional footballers acting like poorly educated children. Spitting is crude and unsavoury and enough to put you off your half-time pie.

And when players act like Neanderthals on the pitch, setting a poor example in the process, it makes it all the harder to control the other issues we have been talking about.

But is spitting really a crime which deserves a five- or six-match suspension? When you consider Luis Suarez only got a 10-match ban for actually biting an opponent – surely one of the worst possible things you can do – six games for spitting in someone’s general direction seems a little disproportionate.

Equally, how can spitting be a worse crime than a player putting in a deliberate and potentially career-threatening tackle on an opponent? The most he is likely to get is a red card and a three-match ban.

I don’t want to see spitting in games. But equally, let’s make sure the punishment fits the crime.

Well deserved celebration

When Danny Welbeck scored what turned out to be winning goal against Manchester United last Monday he celebrated wildly.

This led to some people suggesting he was being disrespectful to the club where he played his football from the tender age of eight before heading to London last year.

There will always be thugs masquerading as fans, supporters with racist sentiments, men who see women as little more than a sex object

Nonsense.

United, and more specifically Louis van Gaal, all but kicked him out of Old Trafford. The Dutch manager didn’t believe Welbeck scored enough goals and was happy to get rid of him. Heck, he probably drove him to the train station.

So for Wellbeck to celebrate was not only understandable but perfectly justifiable. He is an Arsenal player and he scored a crucial goal for the club that employs him. And that’s that.

There are, of course, some instances where it is probably more fitting for a returning player not to celebrate. Like if Frank Lampard had scored at Stamford Bridge against Chelsea, for example.

But in Wellbeck’s case he had every right to enjoy the moment.

At least the United manager can console himself with the excellent form of Wellbeck’s replacement. Oh wait…

Driving to the max

Formula One returns today with the traditional opening race in Australia.

As usual there has been plenty of upheaval in the sport during the close season, with drivers swapping seats, engine supplier Honda making its eagerly anticipated return to racing and one team vanishing from the grid.

F1 has also done its traditional rule tweaking, notably getting rid of the outrageous and illogical law which saw double points awarded for the season’s final race. All good stuff.

But what I am looking forward to the most today is seeing the debut of Max Verstappen, the 17-year-old son of former F1 driver Jos.

When he slips behind the wheel of the Torro Rosso car in Melbourne it will be under a huge weight of expectation: the young lad has been, somewhat unfairly in my opinion, compared to Ayrton Senna by some of his supporters.

Verstappen’s move into the sport has been controversial primarily because of his age. Having a teenager who is still not old enough to drive on the streets behind the wheel of one of the planet’s most powerful machines was always going to ruffle a few feathers.

But from reading interviews with the boy, it is quite apparent he has a good head on his shoulders, and Red Bull’s ‘B’ Team will give him a good grounding.

When it comes to who is likely to emerge on top of the F1 pile this season, it is hard to look further than Mercedes. Red Bull and a revamped Ferrari will probably provide them with some decent competition, and maybe even McLaren once the team works out where the ignition is on the new Honda engine.

But Mercedes still seem to have clear performance daylight between them and the rest of the pack, so it will likely boil down to a straight fight between team-mates Louis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg for the title. My money would be on the Brit making it back-to-back titles. Sorry about that Hamilton…

Real hope for United

Up until now I have always assumed Manchester United’s continuing love affair with Cristiano Ronaldo was destined to end in tears.

That the fallen champions are desperate to woo him back to Old Trafford is one of the worst-kept secrets in English football. But Ronaldo himself has always insisted he is happy at Real Madrid.

That could be changing.

With Carlo Ancellotti’s team going through what can best be described as a sticky patch – including a 4-3 home defeat to Schalke in the Champions League last week – the fans are getting restless.

And who are they venting their anger on? Well, primarily Gareth Bale, who they really haven’t taken to, but increasingly, Ronaldo himself. In fact, in a recent survey, 30 per cent of the club’s fans said he should be dropped from the team.

After the midweek defeat an obviously livid Ronaldo vowed not to say anything else until the end of the season.

For the first time it looks like the Portuguese star’s love affair with Spain may be on the rocks. So expect Manchester United go into severe eyelash batting overdrive while wearing a very short skirt.

The only problem is that even if United do manage to entice him back to the club where he first became a world-class star, his second coming might not go according to plan.

Primarily because van Gaal will probably play him in goal…

sportscolumnist@timesofmalta.com
Twitter: @maltablade