UEFA could severely sanction PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi, to also consider serious the events that occurred in the dressing room tunnel of the Santiago Bernabéu after the Real Madrid – PSG match played last Wednesday. Al-Khelaifi addressed to the referees’ locker room to reproach them for their performance accompanied by Leonardo, sports director. In addition to other facts reported by the witnesses present, the minutes of the meeting written by the Dutch braid Danny Makkelie reflected that the president broke one of the pennants of an assistant “deliberately” and with “aggressive” behavior. The agency has already opened a file.
“With this description, article 11 and article 15 of the UEFA Disciplinary Code contain sufficient mechanisms to impose a punishment that, in terms of matches, could reach a maximum of 15 games of disqualification for both Al-Khelaifi and Leonardo”, he begins to explain. Toni Roca, director of the Sports Law Institute and CEO of the Himnus law firm.
“One or two months of disqualification would not surprise”
“UEFA also reserves the right to substitute the punishment and, instead of sticking to a specific number of matches, apply a period of suspension.”, adds Roca, who quotes literally the sections in which the margins of the potential punishment are collected.
“Throughout Article 15.1, which is where the match scale is set based on the severity of the sanction, there is always talk, not only of a specific number of meetings, but of a ‘determined period’ as an alternative“, Add.
“UEFA has sufficient power to, applying a proportionality criterion, punish the two PSG leaders for a long time. How much? That already depends on what UEFA deems appropriate, but following that principle of proportionality and the seriousness of what is reported, we should not be surprised by a punishment of a month or even a couple”, Rock says.
“The normal thing is that there is some sanction”
Under the criteria of Toni Roca, “it would be surprising if UEFA did not apply any punishment even if it was small”. That will be left to the interpretation of the body, which must assess the seriousness of the facts. Section H should be applied to Al-Khelaifi and Leonardo, which establishes the maximum possible punishment for assaulting an “official” of a match, a figure in which they are considered, among others, “the referee and the assistants of he”.
In addition, adds Roca, “UEFA should also apply an economic fine as reflected in article 15.2 of its Disciplinary Code. The maximum is 100,000 euros per person”, she insists. In addition, the punishment can be extended “to all competitions” that PSG plays, not only to European competitions in case UEFA considers what happened as “a serious offense”.
Pending UEFA delegate report
For now, the only thing that UEFA could judge is what appears in the referee’s report. Other facts reported by witnesses present, such as Al-Khelaifi’s alleged threat to a Real Madrid worker who was recording the commotion with his mobile, would not be judged, unless the UEFA delegate presented these or other events in his report attached to the match. . The reports of the UEFA delegates are delivered time after the arbitration report and its content is not usually disclosed publicly.