Suspension rules the centre-back out of Madrid’s match against Espanyol on Saturday
Real Madrid defender Dean Huijsen has criticised the Spanish football federation (RFEF), after his one-match suspension was upheld by the body’s disciplinary committee.
Huijsen felt that his punishment should have been overturned after the referees’ technical committee (CTA) suggested he should not have been sent off. The former Bournemouth player voiced his frustration on Instagram, saying: “They admit the mistake but I’m still punished. A good image for Spanish football.”
The 20-year-old was dismissed during Madrid’s 2-1 win at Real Sociedad last weekend, when the referee judged his foul on Mikel Oyarzabal to have been denial of a clear goalscoring opportunity.
The decision was confirmed after a VAR review and led to a straight red card.
On Tuesday, the CTA reviewed the incident as part of its weekly video analysis of refereeing decisions in La Liga games. It did not completely reject the referee’s perspective but admitted it felt “the most appropriate punishment would have been a yellow card”.
The argument was that Madrid’s Eder Militao was close enough to the incident to cast doubt over the decision to label Oyarzabal’s chance as a clear goalscoring opportunity.
However, on Thursday the RFEF’s appeals committee rejected Madrid’s attempt to have Huijsen’s ban overturned. The body argued that different interpretations of the foul were possible and that it was not its place to “re-referee” games outside of the pitch.
The suspension rules the centre-back out of Madrid’s match against Espanyol on Saturday.
