by Emanuel Lopes, a player with CCD Caxarias, from the 2nd District Division of the Football Federation of Santarém, has been suspended for 45 days by the association’s Disciplinary Board, after being sent off in last Sunday’s match, against Riachense, in an attempt to Talk about the lands of Skalabita.
The Kaxaria player saw the red card when the game was stopped, after hitting the referee with the ball. However, the moment has, to say the least, surreal contours.
As images released by Derby de Ourém show, a Kaxaria player was fouled and several teammates, including Emmanuel, went to the referee to speak. The referee, when he ordered their removal, inadvertently hit Emmanuel in the face, without him paying attention.
Emanuel then went to retrieve the ball, fired it into the wall to place it in foul line as normal, and touched (apparently without malice) referee Adelino Dias, who was looking at Emanuel and, after that, immediately. showed the red card.
The decision caused some immediate rebellion from the Kaxaria players, but more than the suspension, Emmanuel was sentenced to 45 days on Thursday. According to the punishment map, the player “became guilty of violent conduct”, in the game which Kaxarias lost 3-1.
The athlete had already reacted publicly through the social network Facebook, on Tuesday. “I never wanted to justify the results with someone else’s mistakes, if we are where we are, it is our fault (…) but I have been in the district for almost 20 years and let the first referee or opponent say it somehow, I attacked him or I was disrespectful, either in word or deed. I went to this game having already made some decisions, the journey to get to the stadium cost me because I had the idea that I could play the last game in Kaxaria: 11 years with this symbol on my chest, five years captain of the team and I never thought I would fall like this, I thought I would leave under the applause of the audience of Kaxaria and not wipe away the tears. All the time we’re stealing from our families, whether it’s during the week or an entire Sunday, when crazy people take the backpack and start like this… it doesn’t justify it,” he wrote.
“Always with the utmost respect, at the end of the game I asked why. Obviously I attacked… I explained it was unintentional, I just wanted to put the ball in the zone to take the free kick. “Wrong timing,” he replied. I could and thought about sending myself to the ground when there is a support to keep the players off and I do a lap, I thought I don’t need to look stupid and continue the game. I ended up not being the one to do it,” Emanuel continued.
