Bungling Real Madrid face being kicked out of the Copa del Rey despite winning their tie with Cadiz on the pitch.
It was 11 against 11 last night when Rafa Benitez’s side won 3-1 to reach the last 16 of the competition with Denis Cheryshev opening the scoring- despite being suspended for the tie.
The Russian winger was on loan at Villarreal last season where he picked up three yellow cards with last night the first match in which the ban could apply.
The suspension came to light during the first half of the match with Benitez substituting the player in the first minute of the second hakf as the club attempted to avoid being booted out of the competition, a fate that Osasuna suffered in September for the same offence.
After the match director of institutional relations Emilio Butragueno told tv station Canal+ saying: “This week has not been easy and this night has been even more complicated. The situation is this. We didn’t receive any notification from the federation about the banned players, nor from Villarreal, who is the club with whom Cheryshev received the card. And Cheryshev didn’t know about the sanction.
“It will be the competition judge who determines what happens. For our part there was no bad will, as all the world knows, but there was a misunderstanding as we received no notification.”
Benitez added in his post-match press conference: “The club knew nothing and nor did Cheryshev. Villarreal hadn’t informed us and for this nobody knew anything.
“We found out at half-time and for this, I insist, we substituted him to show our good faith. We played a great game in difficult circumstances. We won and I’m satisfied with the players’ work.”
Despite winning the match on the pitch it seems certain that Real be kicked out of the competition with Cadiz taking their place in the last 16.
In Scotland Rangers (IL) were fined £250,000 for a decade of fielding ineligible players due to not registering the full earnings of players paid through EBT’s.
Andrew Dickson was the football administrator at Rangers (IL) responsible for registering contracts with the SFA and SPL, in July Dickson was given a place on the SFA’s Football Regulatory Advisory Group.
During the same period East Stirling and Spartans were kicked out of the Scottish Cup for administrative mistakes relating to the registration of players.
UN REAL