I was shocked when I saw the incident, but even more shocked at the reactions i've been hearing!
First of all **** on Talkshite - kept saying "I can't condone what Hazard has done BUT...", then goes on to lay into the kid, piccies of him boozing, and comments on his Twitter page.
Similarly, just watched Mark Bright on BBC mention his Twitter comments. The best of the lot though is them saying that Hazard tried to kick the ball... i'm sorry but that is just bollocks. You can clearly see from the replays that the kid rolls over the ball to actually shield it from Hazard. Okay so he's a timewasting little shit... maybe he deserved it, but it sure as hell doesn't excuse it.
If some scrote on the street give you grief, and you twatted them for it... whos door would the old bill be knocking on? Who'd be charged with assault?
Same here, regardless of it happening during a match - fact is the kid is a civilian, and a minor - i'm pretty sure there's a case for civil action - you can hardly say there was provocation!
And to answer the OP - if Balo had done this, there wouldn't be one so-called pundit out there defending him... I don't even think Mancini could defend that!