Spanish Football Federation Rejection of Barcelona's Appeal

The Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) has officially announced the rejection of Barcelona's appeal against head coach Xavi's two-match suspension.

Previously, in the 29th round of La Liga, during Barcelona's away game against Atletico Madrid, Xavi was shown two consecutive yellow cards by referee Martinez and was sent off. Barcelona expressed dissatisfaction with the decision, claiming significant errors on the part of the officials.

Referee Martinez stated in the match report after the game that Xavi, the Barcelona head coach, was sent off in the 42nd minute for dissent, shouting and making disrespectful gestures, actions that occurred after he had already been warned by the fourth official.

Barcelona, discontent with the decision, proceeded with an appeal. The Spanish Football Federation has announced the appeal result, stating that the previous judgment did not present significant errors, thus fully rejecting Barcelona Football Club's appeal.

The ruling of the Appeal Committee is as follows:
The Appeal Committee has received the appeal from Barcelona Football Club. To amend the arbitration decision, it must be acknowledged that there were objective, clear, and undisputed errors.
Regarding the issues raised by the appellant, it should be noted that interpreting the rules of the game and assessing the technical situations involved in the match is the responsibility of the match officials. In this regard, the Disciplinary Committee's conclusion is that, despite the allegations made by the club, there were no significant errors throughout the arbitration process. In this situation, we will attempt to respond to the motivations behind the appeal.

After studying the arguments and accusations repeatedly presented by the club, especially after carefully analyzing the video evidence provided, this Appeal Committee believes that it has not found significant errors that would undermine the presumption of the authenticity of the arbitration conduct.

We agree with the Disciplinary Committee's decision; the video evidence provided by Barcelona does not demonstrate the existence of such significant errors; therefore, if there are no significant errors, it will not affect this decision.

In the absence of any genuine discrepancies, this decision fully complies with Article 127 of the RFEF regulations, which states: "Article 127. Protesting to the referee, protesting to the main referee, assistant referees, or the fourth official, but not constituting more serious misconduct, shall be punished with a suspension of two to three matches or one month."This is a minimal punishment. All of these factors lead us to the conclusion that Barcelona's appeal must be rejected.

Given the above circumstances, the Appeal Committee has decided to completely disregard the appeal submitted by Barcelona Football Club and confirm the disputed part of the RFEF Disciplinary Committee's decision dated March 20, 2024, as valid.