After scoring the game winning goal last night in Barcelona, Cristiano Ronaldo was sent off three minutes later for “embellishment.” In the heat of the moment and in his frustration, the winger pushed the head official, leading to an extended suspension. Here’s everything you need to know on the situation.
Cristiano Ronaldo will miss Real Madrid’s next five matches after shoving referee Ricardo de Burgos Bengoetxea in Los Blancos’ 3-1 win over Barca in the first leg of the Spanish Super Cup.
In a crazy match that featured nine yellow cards in total, Ronaldo was the victim of poor officiating as he was shown a second yellow card for ‘diving’ on the edge of the box while jostling with Barca defender Samuel Umitit in the 82nd minute.
The Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) handed the Portuguese international a five match ban in total, one match for the red card he received in the match, and four matches for the push to the referee.
To go along with the five match ban, Ronaldo will also have to pay a fine of €3,805, and the club will be fined €1,750 for the incident.
The ban, however, could be reduced, as the club has 10 days to appeal. That being said, it looks very unlikely this five match ban will be reduced as Bengoetxea wrote in his post match report, “Cristiano Ronaldo Dos Santos Aveiro — having been shown the red card, the player pushed me slightly in a sign of his disagreement.”
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The RFEF disciplinary code states that any contact made with an official, even if only “slightly” will result in a ban anywhere from 4 to 12 matches. So, it appears Ronaldo is a bit lucky to have only been handed the minimum suspension.
Article 96 of the disciplinary code states, “Pulling, pushing or shaking, or a general attitude towards the match officials which, even if only slightly violent, without confirming an aggressive attitude on their part, will be punished with a suspension of four to 12 games.”
Left back Marcelo was rather unhappy with the referee’s decision, saying in his post match press conference, “Cristiano being sent off was bizarre, but sometimes that can happen. Referees can make mistakes, along with the things they get right.”
An interesting side note to this Ronaldo suspension is in an El Clasico back in 2009, Leo Messi did basically the same thing as CR7 but received no suspension. Check out the tweet below:
Cristiano is set to miss the second leg of the Spanish Super Cup Wednesday in Madrid, as well as the first four LaLiga matches of the ’17/’18 campaign. He will miss matches against Deportivo La Coruna, Valencia, Levante, and Real Sociedad.
He can, however, participate in Real Madrid’s first Champions League group stage match, and the Santiago Bernabéu Trophy friendly against Fiorentina on August 23rd.
Next: 3 Takeaways from Real Madrid’s Super Cup Win Over Barcelona