La Liga rejects Barcelona's appeal and upholds Vitor Roque's suspension

Barcelona took all three points on their last visit in La Liga. Xavi Hernandez's side won 1-3 in a much more complete game than the previous ones, against a fierce Alaves side. The negative note was the sending off of Vitor Roque. The 'Cules' coach protested a lot when he saw the action as he thought the second yellow was a bit exaggerated. The Brazilian saw two yellow cards in a matter of 5 minutes and went straight to the dressing room.

The Catalan team lodged an appeal on the grounds that the sending-off was unfair. Now, the Committee has decided to dismiss it. Barcelona provided video evidence of the second yellow card given to the former Athletico Paranaense player. The referee, in the minutes of the match, described the action as follows: "He hit an opponent with his foot on the leg of an opponent in a reckless manner". The 'Cules' claimed a "manifest error" by the referee in punishing the action.

The Committee stresses in its statement that the alleged error must be "manifest" in order to discredit the criteria of the referee, who is responsible for dispensing justice in a match. It will not be possible to revoke a refereeing decision by invoking an insult in the interpretation of the Laws of the Game", the Committee stresses again before clarifying that Barcelona maintain that there is "no "inexistence of a blow" and "inexistence of recklessness" in that second action by Vitor Roque which led to him being shown the second yellow card and, therefore, the red card.

"In any event, there must be a clear or obvious error, irrespective of any opinion, assessment or interpretation. The Committee considers that the images provided fail to show the existence of a manifest material error, the existence of contact being obvious, as the letter itself acknowledges 'at most there is a simple brush'. In other words: it does not appear that the player who was cautioned did not carry out the action that was recorded in the match report", it adds.

These are the explanations given by the Disciplinary Committee before deciding: "This Committee agrees to reject the allegations and to uphold the suspension of Vitor Roque and, therefore, the sending off he was given with a one-match ban".

It was a blow for the Brazilian player, who had scored in two consecutive games for Barcelona and who had the chance to play again against Granada in Montjuic. He could be back at Balaidos, the stadium that the Catalan giants will visit after the next match against Celta.