Piqué, disqualified for two months and sanctioned for six games for his attitude towards the referees after Andorra-Albacete

The Disciplinary Committee of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) sanctioned this Wednesday the president of FC Andorra, Gerard Piqué, with six games and two months of disqualification for his way of acting with the refereeing body after last weekend’s match between the Andorran team, which it warned of an upcoming punishment in the form of loss of points after what happened, and Albacete Balompié.

The referee’s report stated that Gerard Piqué addressed the referee “making objections of a technical nature” in relation to his performance, which brought a lot of controversy and a series of “conducts” by the former footballer and other people from FC Andorra that “reflect the commission of various infractions.”

In the individual case of the former player, he clarified that FC Andorra informed him “at the beginning of the season that he did not hold a formal organic position in the club”, but that his “performance” during the season and “the permissiveness of the club with its actions have attested to the existence of sufficient evidence to review that criterion.”

Discipline pointed out that after verifying the actions of the former player, it has concluded that “he de facto exercises management functions at FC Andorra, regardless of the formal name that the club attributes to him”, which is why “he is subject to the disciplinary power of the RFEF.”

Thus, given that the act describes that Piqué “addressed the referee in a threatening attitude, chasing him a few centimeters from his face along the tunnel while he protested his performance” and using an “intimidating tone”, Discipline decides to suspend him for six games.

Furthermore, Piqué continued to address “the referee team continuously” during his arrival at the parking lot and with expressions with “intimidating content, in a public space and with the referee team under police escort”, which he calls “notorious acts that violate sporting dignity and decorum” as included in the Disciplinary Code.

For the organization, the expression ‘In another country they would blow you up’ that the former player said according to the act, has a “veiledly coercive” component, which justifies the imposition of the sanction above the minimum degree” and the imposition of a disqualification for two months.

He also sanctions the delegate Cristian Lanzarote with three games and a two-month suspension, the sports director Jaume Nogués with six games and disqualification for a period of two months, and the president Ferrán Vilaseca with a four-month suspension.

On the other hand, regarding FC Andorra, Disciplina makes it clear that “throughout this season, events of a similar nature to those recorded in this report have been reproduced” that require it to act “with forcefulness, since they more than qualify as violent acts”, and that the Andorran team “has incurred in conscious and repeated non-compliance with regulatory obligations consisting of the limitation of access to the locker room area and access to the playing field to persons not authorized by federal regulations”.

In this sense, he had “expressly” warned him after matchday 19 of future sanctions, highlighting that Piqué’s presence in the locker room area after the break “without being a person permitted by the applicable federal regulations, constitutes one more episode of this repeated pattern, which cannot but be interpreted as a conscious breach” of the Disciplinary Code and treated “as a serious infraction.”

For this reason, it imposes on the club “a fine of 1,500 euros and partial closure of the sports venue for two games, limited to the area of ​​the Presidential Box and its attached VIP rooms, as it is presumably the usual location of those who have carried out the incidents recorded in the minutes.”

“This Committee expressly warns FC Andorra that, if non-compliance with regulatory obligations is repeated, it will consider imposing the sanction of deducting three points in the final classification,” the organization warns.