Rayo Vallecano president Raúl Martín Presa has come out with a ludicrous response to an equally ludicrous ban.
Rayo’s 3-3 LaLiga draw with Real Sociedad saw a number of players lose their heads as their European hopes for next season were derailed.
Multiple players received yellow cards from referee Jose Luis Guzman Mansilla for unsportsmanlike conduct protests, including star winger and captain Isi Palazón.
However, Palazón later got a straight red for the same reason, with the referee’s report claiming he called him a word which loosely translates to ‘scoundrel’.
Suggesting cheating or bias has stunningly landed the winger a massive seven-game ban – one for accumulating yellow cards, two for the sending-off and the protests, and four for the alleged insult.
Such a punishment ends his LaLiga season early, although Rayo are still active in the Conference League semi-finals.
However, qualifying again for Europe will be difficult for Rayo without their captain who’s known as ‘The Bald Beckham’, and unpopular club president Presa has given a sensationalist take.
LaLiga president goes off the rails
“It is possibly the greatest atrocity and injustice ever committed against a football team in Spanish football,” he said without irony.
“And all this after suffering an accumulation of errors in last Sunday’s match that no other Spanish team in LaLiga has experienced in recent decades.
“The Disciplinary Committee’s decision is unacceptable. What they’ve done to Rayo Vallecano is inadmissible and we won’t tolerate it.
“We’re going to appeal to every level of the federation and, if necessary, to the courts; in other words, to every possible avenue.”
He added: “It is completely unacceptable that Isi Palazón, an exemplary player, should receive two different sanctions for the same action, so that these sanctions are cumulative.
“This amounts to condemning him twice for the same act, generating a double sanction for the same factual event and increasing it to a greater sanction than it should be, since the evidence has not even been considered.
“Rayo Vallecano does not condone Isi Palazón’s attitude or behaviour, despite the many reasons for frustration and anger he may have had; but we cannot allow him to be punished twice and with a much more severe penalty than his actions warrant.
“We were already severely disadvantaged last weekend, and now we cannot afford to be deprived of an important player for the remainder of the season.”
He finished: “Today is a sad day, a very sad day, for Rayo, on the eve of a historic event like reaching the Conference semi-finals against Strasbourg.
“But Rayo deserves respect and justice, and the Disciplinary Committee has been very, very unfair.”
Giving his take Palazón was also furious.
“I’m really, really pissed off,” he said. “They don’t treat everyone equally.
“What they’ve done to me, giving me a seven-match ban , is an injustice.
“I didn’t insult him. I said ‘it’s a disgrace,’ and there were witnesses.”
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