The Competition Committee of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) has shelved Deportivo's claim for improper alignment of Extremadura in last Sunday's match at the Abanca-Riazor Stadium, a meeting that the Galician team lost 2-3 to an opponent who had already completed his descent to Second B.
Deportivo understood that for about 20 seconds Extremadura could have failed to comply with article 223.2 of the RFEF regulations, since, while attending the band to Airam Cabrera due to injury, the team played with only six players from the first team and the norm determines that there must be seven.
Competition understands in its resolution that “the fact that a player must leave the field of play for a few seconds to be attended by the health services does not mean that he stops participating in the match”.
The RFEF body also maintains that “assimilating what happened in this meeting to any of the assumptions contemplated” article 223.2 (injury or expulsion) “would suppose an unreasonably rigorous interpretation of the rules that regulate the alignment of footballers in the meetings”.
In this sense, remember that game rule 5.3 states that “the injured player is obliged to be treated off the field of play without losing his status as a player.”
Based on that, Competition considers that “player Airam Cabrera was participating in the match during the seconds that he was attended by the health services outside the field of play” and, consequently, article 223.2 would not be breached.
An appeal can be lodged against the present resolution before the Appeal Committee before 2:00 pm on Wednesday, and Deportivo has already announced that it will file that appeal.