10-Year-Old Soccer Player Arrested in China for This 'Dirty' Kick to an Opponent's Head

When you see it, you'll probably let out a verbal "oh!"

During a recent soccer match in Hong Kong between two under-twelve (U-12) teams, things got ugly. As you'll see, the team in blue (the ESF Lions) is seen committing plenty of controversial plays including tough tackles. But the pinnacle of dirty comes when one boy goes to "kick" the ball and instead unleashes his foot on an opponent's head as he lay on the ground. Now, that boy has been arrested.

Here's just the kick:

Deadspin has the more complete video showing everything leading up to the kick, plus a better view of the dirty play (at 1:36):

“I understand that the parent of the injured child has referred the matter to the police and we will cooperate fully with any police investigation,” the head of Hong Kong’s English Schools Foundation (ESF) said in a letter to parents, according to the Telegraph.

The boy was arrested and then released on bail.

But there seems to be more at play here. The Telegraph dives into some of the politics surrounding the incident. See ESF has come under fire because it's subsidized by the government:

ESF was set up in 1967 mainly for the children of expatriates on the island and continues to receive a controversial subsidy from the Hong Kong government, despite now being the largest international school network in Asia.

Some comments posted on the websites of Hong Kong newspapers pointed out that the ESF team, including the ten year-old, were mainly Caucasian and described them as “white bullies”. From the video, the injured boy appeared to be ethnically Chinese.

Others demanded that the government stop funding the education of foreigners.

However, the head of the Kitchee sports club, Ken Ng, played down the racial element of the incident. “Do not read too much into it,” he told AFP. “It is one boy kicking another boy."

Do you think the boy should have been arrested? Did the kick seem intentional?