Footballers can be 'targets' claims Dickson Etuhu

Dickson Etuhu's brother Kelvin was jailed for eight months (GETTY IMAGES)

Fulham midfielder Dickson Etuhu believes his brother Kelvin's status as a Premier League footballer made him a target.

Kelvin Etuhu, who had been released from his contract at Manchester City in part due to the criminal proceedings, received an eight-month prison sentence last week for a drunken street brawl which left a man with a broken jaw.

The 22-year-old attacked Owen Fitzpatrick following a dispute in a casino cocktail bar and was caught on camera kicking the victim three times on the ground after he floored him with a punch.

Dickson Etuhu used his column in today's London Evening Standard to question the severity of the sentence.

"Being a professional footballer is a privilege and a wonderful career, but you do the job with a realisation that, in some people's eyes, you are a target," he said.

"My younger brother, Kelvin, learned the painful lesson of the perils that can come with being a famous face last week.

"Let me stress that he is very sorry for what has happened. He accepts that he should not have behaved in the manner that he did.

"What all of us are struggling to come to terms with is the severity of his sentence.

"Kelvin had never been in trouble before, had no criminal record and the judge accepted that he was provoked and yet now he finds himself behind bars aged 22, his contract at Eastlands cancelled and his future uncertain."