Real Madrid hopes to reduce Vinícius suspension before Clásico

Real Madrid’s legal fight to have Vinícius available before the Clásico is described as a race against time and an almost impossible task. The club intends to appeal the forward’s suspension in the hope of reducing it. The ban would rule him out of matches against Sevilla, Racing and Valencia, as well as the fixture with Barcelona.

The suspension followed Vinícius’s sending-off against Villarreal. The referee’s report says he pulled Saliba’s hair. The disciplinary decision imposed two matches for what the commission considered a violent act involving his grip on Saliba, plus two more for his protests to referee Isidro Díaz de Mera.

The possibility of reducing the first part of the ban would depend on how the incident is classified. If Real Madrid can argue that it happened during play, as the club maintains, the suspension could be reduced to one match. By contrast, there would be no room for leniency over the two games connected to the subsequent protests. The referee’s report describes Vinícius protesting forcefully after his dismissal, approaching the referee aggressively and having to be restrained by teammates.

The regulations distinguish violent acts committed during a match from those occurring away from play or while play is stopped. In the latter case, the prescribed suspension is two to three matches. Another article also provides for two to three matches, or up to a month, for protests directed at the referee, an assistant referee or the fourth official, unless the conduct constitutes a more serious offence.

The timing of the process is another obstacle: if the deadline passes, no decision will be issued for that matchday. Real Madrid can also appeal to the Appeals Commission only if it already has that commission’s decision. Seeking a provisional measure before the Administrative Court of Sport appears very difficult: the position taken so far in similar cases has been not to grant such measures, partly because a 25-player squad is considered sufficient to make the suspension non-decisive.