The Appeal Committee of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) has rejected Real Madrid’s appeal for the expulsion of striker Vinícius Júnior in Mestalla and maintains the two-match ban on the Brazilian, who must serve them against UD Las Palmas and the Real Valladolid.
“This Committee observes that the sanction imposed by the Disciplinary Committee already corresponds to the minimum provided for this infraction, which excludes any possibility of additional reduction,” highlights Appeal, which explains that this “is fully in accordance with the Law.”
Furthermore, it reiterates that the wording of the minutes is correct. “A careful reading of the long appeal filed by Real Madrid allows us to see that the existence of the action that led to the expulsion is not disputed in any way,” he states. “The actions captured in the images are compatible with the description of the events as a deliberate blow to the head of an opponent, without the ball being in dispute and with a force that exceeds mere contact,” he adds.
The expulsion of the Madrid striker occurred in the 79th minute of the EA Sports LaLiga match on January 3 at Mestalla (1-2), when Carlo Ancelotti’s team was still behind on the scoreboard; After an attacking action, he hit the rival goalkeeper, the Macedonian Stole Dimitrievski, on the head, and after seeing the red card he had to be restrained while protesting angrily. For this reason, the Disciplinary Committee imposed a two-game sanction on him.
Among other reasons for requesting a reduction in the sanction, the white club alleged that there had been a previous provocation by the Macedonian goalkeeper Stole Dimitrievski when Vinícius was kneeling on the ground. “The possible existence of a prior provocation, although it could be considered a mitigating circumstance, does not justify an additional reduction in the sanction, having already applied the most favorable criterion to the offender when imposing the minimum sanction provided. Therefore, the appealed resolution must be confirmed in its entirety,” the committee notes.
Real Madrid also argued that serious racist insults had been heard towards the Brazilian, for which they attached a video. “After repeated viewing of said video, this Committee cannot in any way consider it proven that there were serious and generalized racist insults to the player. The video (…) only allows us to hear two isolated individuals, at two different times uttering racist insults, the video support then showing different sequences of generalized chants such as ‘Beach Ball, Vinícius Beach Ball’ or ‘fool, fool’, which from an objective point of view do not fall into the category of the racist insults reported by the appellant club,” he points out.
Real Madrid can still file an appeal before the Sports Administrative Court (TAD) within fifteen business days. If the sanction is maintained, Vinícius will miss the EA Sports LaLiga matches against UD Las Palmas, this Sunday at the Santiago Bernabéu, and Real Valladolid, on January 25 at the José Zorrilla.