When Cristiano Ronaldo was sent-off on Saturday the common belief was that the Real Madrid star would get a three match ban for violent conduct, which would see him miss the upcoming games against Real Sociedad, Sevilla and Atlético
Ronaldo completely lost the plot on Saturday against Córdoba when with the score level at 1-1 he kicked out at Edimar in an off-the-ball incident and earned a straight red card.
La Liga’s Competition Committee meets on Wednesday and will decide the sanction, which is expected to be a ban of between one and four games, according to AS.
If it decides to apply the minimum punishment then Ronaldo will only miss next Saturday’s match against Real Sociedad, while if it is two then he will also be out for the Sevilla game on Feb. 4. If the committee raises the ban to three games then the Portugal captain would miss the derby against Atletico Madrid on Feb. 7, while a fourth game would rule him out of the Deportivo La Coruna clash.
The ban imposed will depend entirely on the interpretation of the referee’s report, decided upon by three independent judges who make up the committee.
Referee Alejandro Jose Hernandez described the incident as:
“Sent off for kicking an opponent with the ball not within playing distance.”
The wording is vital in terms of the ban to be applied because the committee only looks at the report and accepts no other proof. Although legally it could look at other evidence, it usually never does.
Real Madrid will seize on the fact that the referee didn’t refer to violent conduct when describing the reason why he sent off Ronaldo and argue then that he should be suspended for two games and not three, making him eligible to return for the Madrid derby.
