Sergio Canales has been sanctioned by Competition Committee with a four-game suspension for statements he made about the Valencian referee Mateu Lahoz. According to the Committee, the Cantabrian player stated after Betis-Valladolid about the expulsion in the match against Cádiz, that the Valencian referee “I had it premeditated and it’s not part of the game.”
In addition, the Betic 10 did not want to maintain any kind of contact with the referee during all 90 minutes, despite being captain in that game: “I was very clear that I was not going to talk to him. I am the captain and I have to talk to the referee and today I was not going to do it, it was not appropriate. I have tried to avoid any conversation”.
Although I was captain, I decided not to address him in the match against Valladolid
According to the Competition Committee file, the sanction is due to “exceeding the limits of healthy and legitimate criticism that protects the right to freedom of expression. The attribution of premeditation to the referee clearly questions his impartiality and honesty by imputing to him a sort of fraudulent attitude when adopting the decision”.
Betis will appeal the sanction
The legal services will appeal the decision of competition with the images of the interview in question in which Canales does not pronounce exactly the words indicated by the Committee and in no case does it say that the expulsion was “premeditated”. The man from Santander says “predimitada”, a word that does not exist, so an interpretation of his statement would be being made by putting something into his mouth that he does not really say.
In the Verdiblanco club they are clear that they will go to all possible instances to prevent their third captain from being penalized for this matter, especially in a key phase of the season in which their team is not only playing for the possibility of repeating the European qualification for the third consecutive season, but is fighting for a place Champions. The sanction is communicated four days after a duel against a direct rival like the Atletico Madrid.
Precedents with the same sanction
This season, Gayá also missed four games. The Valencia captain was sanctioned, following the same procedure as Canales. The left side, after a game against healthdeclared that “it is the trend we have this season. They have to warn him of a very clear penalty. The referee has seen it and did not want to whistle it. We will fight everything and move on. It’s business as usual.”
In addition, the 14 Valencian player added that “the referee, at half-time, told us that if he had whistled the penalty on Bryan, they would have removed it from the VAR because there was no contact. We can’t say anything either because they give you a yellow card like me at the end of the game. They do what they want”.
Gayá, against Atlético de Madrid.
‘Cucho’ Hernandez, a former Getafe player and now in MLS, was also banned for four matches for criticizing Gil Manzano’s decisions in a match against Granada. The Colombian stated that “It bothers me personally that, throughout the game, he was a bit disrespectful to us, threatening us from the first minuteso it conditions you, it conditions the game, but hey, I’ll put that aside.”
