The gesture of the finger in the nose adds 2 penalty duels to the expulsion itself
BARCELONA, 16 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Competition Committee of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) has sanctioned FC Barcelona striker Robert Lewandowski with a 3-game suspension after his expulsion at El Sadar –duel against Osasuna on matchday 14 of LaLiga Santander–, with 2 of the sanction duels due to his gesture of the finger in the nose when he left the field of play.
In the absence of FC Barcelona being able to appeal the decision before the Appeals Committee, for the moment Robert Lewandowski is left out of Barça’s next three league games, all of them important, against RCD Espanyol, at the Spotify Camp Nou, and against Atlético de Madrid and Real Betis at home.
Competition penalizes the Blaugrana striker with one match for the double warning seen at El Sadar, in the triumph of Xavi Hernández’s men over Osasuna (1-2), by virtue of article 120 of the Disciplinary Code and with an accessory fine to the club in amount of 350 euros and of 600.00 to the Polish.
However, they add two more games of sanction to Lewandowski for an attitude of contempt or inconsideration towards the referee, Gil Manzano from Extremadura, by virtue of article 124 of the Disciplinary Code and with an accessory fine to the club in the amount of 700.00 euros and of 600.00 to the player.
A penalty appealed by FC Barcelona and completely dismissed by the Competition Committee. In relation to the gesture of disapproval, with Lewandowski putting his finger to his nose, the Committee rejects the arguments of the blaugrana club, alluding that the gesture was one of “dissatisfaction” and to a certain extent of “personal offense” for the ways in which the referee addressed him.
“The club insists that what the player shows with this gesture is his dissatisfaction with the treatment received by the main referee of the match, affirming at another time that the player did not make any gesture of disapproval of an arbitration decision but of the forms with which the referee addressed the player”, says the Competition report.
“It is, therefore, obvious that the conduct that is being prosecuted occurred and that it implied, in our opinion, a disapproval of the referee of the meeting in terms of contempt or inconsideration, without the eventual ones, and of course gratuitous for not proven or even indicated, forms of the arbitrator could serve as justification of that one”, appealed the committee.
“There is therefore no manifest material error either in the existence of the conduct or in the description and scope of it in the Arbitration Act,” added the Competition document in this regard.
In this sense, the player’s own explanations after receiving the 2021/22 Golden Boot were ignored. “About the gesture, it’s even funny because last week I was talking with the coach, with Xavi, that in the future it could happen that I saw a yellow card and I had to go (sent off) for another yellow card, and that it would be hard. I had that ‘feeling’ that it could happen. And after what happened I made this gesture to Xavi, not to the referee, it’s a big difference. It was like saying ‘what we talked about, today has happened'”, he explained to the press.
On the other hand, the sanction of 4 games was confirmed for the already retired Gerard Piqué, sent off at half-time for protesting to the referee in what was, despite not playing, his last game as a professional.
“Gerard Piqué Bernabéu, by virtue of article 99 of the Disciplinary Code, considering that the facts included in the minutes are carried out in an action unit, with an accessory fine to the club in the amount of 1,400 euros and 2,400.00 euros to the offender”, pick up the record.