He will say that he was very sensitive in the middle of Marcelo Gallardo’s farewell from River Plate, that the 1-2 defeat against Rosario Central was not the goodbye that was expected, that he did not want to do it… but he did and that is why now Juan Fernando Quintero faces a punishment that can be very difficult to overcome.
What is it that he did? In the aforementioned duel he wanted to claim the referee Fernando Echenique, whom he accused of mistreating him, and he returned the aggression with a blow to the chest. He immediately got the red card.
Now it depends one hundred percent on the nobility of the referee to know what his punishment will be, which is anticipated to be very severe, in view of what the local regulations have.
Pay attention to the data: the “player who attacks the referee by hitting him by any means, or knocks him down, charges, pushes, shoves or shakes him violently for purposes of aggression” is exposed to an “exemplary” punishment, which can range from one to 5 years of sanction in the worst case, according to the Regulation of Transgressions and Penalties of the Argentine Football Association of the AFA.
So the lifeline that remains for the Colombian is that the referee who was attacked has not recorded details in the match minutes that add to that sanction and that he has taken into account that situation of the heat of the match and some moment of confusion so that the sanction is from 3 to 12 games, maximum.
Quintero has in his favor that he is not a repeat offender in this type of violent behavior, but clearly too severe a punishment could even affect his future at River Plate, which without Gallardo does not seem so clear.
