Real Madrid Chief Valdano Blasts UEFA Over ‘Unfair’ Red-Card Fiasco
By Chris Wright
Real Madrid’s tightly-coiffed director general Jorge Valdano has hit out at UEFA’s handling of the red-card fiasco in which the club is currently mired – accusing Platini an co. of ‘singling out’ the Spanish giants after Sergio Ramos and Xabi Alonso deliberately received second yellow cards for time-wasting t’other night, thus effectively ensuring that they would begin the knockout stages of the Champions League with clean disciplinary records.
UEFA launched an investigation into the allegations of gamesmanship and saw fit to charge both Ramos and Alonso along with the brains of the operation, coach Jose Mourinho – a precedent that Valdano sees as wholly unfair, telling Cadena Ser radio station:
“I can’t go into details but there have been many players who have done something similar and were not punished.
“(Former Lyon midfielder) Juninho was penalised financially, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Walter Samuel, when they were at Inter, did something similar. There is no way to rely on the regulations.
“What happens at Real Madrid also happens at other clubs but UEFA are never as severe.”
The case is now due to be heard by the UEFA Control and Disciplinary Body next Tuesday and, with UEFA’s shiny new backbone in order, who knows – they might just throw the book at serial whinger Valdano as well.
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I think the big clubs in Europe enjoy too much special treatment on game days.
To deliberately waste time to justify a nullification of their bookings, that’s quite clearly an attempt to tamper with the rules put out by the governing body. This also allows for more aggressive play from Sergio Ramos and Xabi Alonso.
I say give ‘em the bookings, and leave it at that.
If UEFA are intent on doling out some form of disciplinary action then they should just suspend Ramos/Alonso as normal but defer the one-match bans until the knockout phase begins. Sorted.
Valdano is an idiot – he’s just effectively admitted the guilt of his players (which was obvious, obviously!) – when UEFA could hardly have PROVEN that the players had conspired to get sent off for nefarious reasons, could they?!
Still, it’s always handy to build an “us against the world” siege mentality just before the Clasico…
Yeah, Valdano is just digging this shallow hole deeper. I think UEFA is more angry at the fact that RM is pissing on their back and telling them it’s raining. If either player only needed a yellow card to get the maximum(3), it would have been far less obvious and this wouldn’t even be a story.
Ramos and Alonso did the same thing last year in la liga before the clasico and so did Dani Alves. They weren’t punished then, why should they be punished now?