BarcelonaVoltregà-Masies and Hockey Club Piera met on March 11 and the match, of the Catalan National Skate Hockey League, had to be interrupted prematurely. A few minutes after the start, Jorge Rivero, from Piera, hit David Martí in the face, who had to go to the Igualada Hospital, where he underwent surgery. Voltregà refused to continue playing and the Sports Discipline Committee of the Catalan Federation sanctioned him with the loss of the game by 10 goals to 0 and the rest of an additional point in the classification. On April 22, the federation issued a 15-match suspension for the Piera player. But on Sunday, May 1, all the alarms went off, when Rivero put on his skates again with the Burguillos Hockey Club jersey of the South Bronze League. The player had decided to sign for an Extremaduran team to escape punishment in a league held under the auspices of the Spanish Skating Federation.
David has been playing hockey since he was a child. In 23 years he has gone through all the categories, won the Catalan Championship and has even been called up to the national team. “I’ve been through a lot of hockey,” he says. After a month and a half off work, however, he plans to leave the sport he has loved so much. “At the moment I don’t plan to go back, I don’t know after the summer, but I see it very black. I’m very sorry because I’ve been playing for three years and this has never happened to me. I broke my arm and knee and you always want to go back, but with that you feel like it “, says the player, who is now 26 years old.
With a broken voice and a gesture of disbelief, Martí admits that he still does not understand the reason for the aggression. He was in the middle of the court when he received a foul. “When I fell, I said, ‘Hey!’ and he confronted me [Rivero]”, An argument that has been used to point to a possible relationship of conflict between the two players. “I took the foul, went to the bottom, went out to the fence and there he fucked me with the stick. I noticed the broken teeth inside my mouth and when I touched my face with my hands they were full of blood ”.
The player was taken to the emergency room and from there he was taken to Igualada Hospital. “I was told this was to be done by a surgeon. When they saw my face they were very surprised. I was there for three hours. ” The player received ten internal points and seven on the lip, the blow completely destroyed a tooth and broke two more, and a fourth was displaced. Following the medical protocol, he was offered to process a police report there, which will now have to follow its legal course.
Jorge Rivero’s escape has taken clubs and federations by surprise. The sanction was appealed from Voltregà and a complaint was processed to the Spanish Federation. Òscar Saldanya, de la catalana, admet que han demanat l’expedient a l’espanyola “per revisar-lo i per veure si ells poden fer alguna cosa a través del seu comitè”. The head of the federation, however, takes the opportunity to emphasize that this contact could serve to improve communication between the two entities. “We have proposed to them to establish some kind of agreement to share the information of the sanctions, at least of red cards or of a certain gravity. We will study what solutions can be applied so that the issue is not repeated. For now, however, it is not regulated, “he said.
Differences between federal bodies
The differences between federations are remarkable. Mentre que a la catalana l’agressió està sancionada amb entre 5 i 15 partits –de 10 a 20 quan es produeixen conseqüències lesives–, a l’espanyola la sanció hauria sigut d’entre 4 partits i dos anys de suspensió, a banda d ‘a fine that could reach € 3,000. The regulations for international competitions are even more restrictive and treat these types of aggressions as very serious offenses that can lead to a suspension of between two years and one day and four years.
This is the second serious aggression experienced by hockey in recent months after the 10-match sanction was announced in January for Sergi Navarro, a player from Club Arenys de Mar, for a blow to the face of Pau Vilaró. In this case, the match was also interrupted, but the Catalan Federation decided to validate the result that existed at the time of the aggression. According to statements from the body, Arenys de Mar acknowledged the blow, but argued that it had been fortuitous.
Saldanya expresses his concern in this regard: “We are totally against violence and we are working in a commission in which we want to deal with the formation of values. We need to make a training effort on the part of everyone. I think it’s been a season with a lot of incidents and it’s probably caused by the pandemic. ” The leader predicts that in the next assembly the clubs will be asked again for double arbitration and that an effort will be made to cut the financial expense that this would entail. “The referees also want to go in pairs. A referee who goes alone to a court, and who has to go back, sometimes feels very unprotected “, he adds.
