THE Disciplinary Council of the Portuguese Football Federation announced this Thursday the punishments relating to the matches of the ninth round of the I League, where the main focus is on the meeting between Santa Clara and Benfica.
This is because the use of Jhon Durán in this Thursday’s match, against Gil Vicente, for the quarter-finals of the League Cup, was dependent on the result of the sanction resulting from the controversial expulsion at the end of the match that gave Benfica victory at the São Miguel Stadium, in the Azores archipelago.
However, the Colombian forward received the good news that he can go to the game, although a disciplinary process was initiated against the Eagles’ number 22, leaving Marco Silva on the sidelines for the next ‘chapters’ of a decision that the Reds, in a statement, considered to be “unfair”.
Benfica, however, was forced to pay a fine of 4,080 euros for the altercation that took place between players and members of the technical team of both teams, and also 2,295 euros due to the behavior of the red assistant coach, who, according to the report of referee Cláudio Pereira, “had aggressive physical behavior towards members of the opposing team, during the widespread conflict, also saying words that were not perceptible to the refereeing team, which contributed to the spread of the conflict” – precisely the same justification given for showing Jhon Durán the red card.
Mário Branco, who was also sent off in this sequence, ended up being suspended for 20 days, with the right to a new disciplinary process, while, during the match, Gianluca Prestianni was sanctioned for “kicking a panel in the first line of advertising, which was on the side of the east stand, damaging it”, which generated another bill of 1,020 euros for the Luz club to pay.
Santa Clara also has a large bill to pay
However, it wasn’t just Benfica that had high amounts to pay, as the home team also reached thousands of euros in fines, with almost half due to comments from their assistant coach Tiago Pinto.
“Using offensive, insulting and/or rude language or gestures. At the end of the game, he entered the field of play, and addressed the refereeing team saying: ‘It’s your fault. Go fuck yourself! You guys are rubbish'”, can be read in the official note on the FPF CD.
This sentence was worth a total of 2,950 euros to Santa Clara’s coffers, which also had to pay another 2,244 euros for the widespread confusion at the end of the match, as well as 670 euros for the “incorrect” attitudes of a ball catcher, who after the Azoreans’ goal, “kicked a ball into the playing rectangle and adopted a provocative stance towards the visiting bench”.
