Real Madrid forward Vinicius Junior has slammed La Liga for announcing his four-match domestic suspension just two hours before the club’s UEFA Champions League fixture against Roma on Thursday.
The Brazilian winger will miss Real Madrid’s upcoming La Liga fixtures, including the highly anticipated El Clasico against Barcelona, following his straight red card during the league match against Villarreal last weekend.
"I only heard about it at the stadium. I think the ban came at a bad time. They had all day to announce the suspension, and just as I got to the stadium, I got the message that I was going to miss four La Liga games," Vinicius said as quoted by goal.com.
The forward also questioned the lack of communication surrounding the disciplinary regulations, claiming players had not been adequately informed about the rule that led to his suspension.
“I don’t understand why. The truth is that the rule is new. They’ve never explained this to us. Someone from LaLiga always comes in, or from whatever the refereeing organisation is called, to explain the new rules to us. But this time, this specific thing, nobody told us about it,” he added.
Real Madrid head coach Jose Mourinho also criticised the timing of the announcement, arguing that the authorities could have communicated the suspension the following morning instead of doing so shortly before a major European fixture.
“Couldn’t they do it tomorrow morning? They do things shamelessly now. The cat is out of the bag now. Two hours before the match, a player must know he has a four-match suspension. You want to kill a player two hours before the match? It doesn’t seem normal to me,” he told reporters after the match.
The suspension follows a controversial incident during Real Madrid’s 1-0 league victory over Villarreal. Vinicius was sent off after pulling the hair of opponent Nathan Saliba, with the incident coming after the Brazilian had seen a goal disallowed following a VAR review.
(Except for the headline, this article has not been edited by FPJ's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)
