Espanyol will take its descent to ordinary justice
Espanyol has not yet said its last word on what, at least so far, is its sixth relegation in its entire history. The blue and white entity considers that it has been seriously harmed by various arbitration decisions throughout this campaign that would have ended up crystallizing in a loss of category that is a severe blow to its assets.
For this reason, he wants the ordinary courts to rule on this point and is preparing to go to them next week. “From the club we consider that there are several arbitration and VAR decisions that we do not understand and that have had a direct impact on our relegation.. We believe that we had earned the right to stay at home, on the last day, and they have not allowed us to do so,” says Joan Capdevila, a former footballer and member of the entity's institutional area.
Club sources reiterate that it is not about seeking to correct possible arbitration errors, but that they are, in any case, various extraordinary situations that would have been detrimental to the interests of Espanyol. The re-arbitration, so to speak, of the action that cost Vinicius the red card against Valencia and which was later withdrawn by the Competition, from his point of view, opens the door to this option.
For now, he has already proceeded to the audiovisual compilation of all the actions in which he considers that he has been seriously harmed, with the aim of documentary support for his arguments.. Information in which, in addition to the possible phantom goal from Atlético de Madrid, there are several expulsion actions of blue and white players, goals not finally conceded due to previous fouls and, even, the action of César Montes jumping with Mamardashvili penalized as a foul in a play that could have meant the 1-3 against Valencia last weekend, a foul on Braithwaite prior to the final 2-2 or a possible penalty on the Dane, almost at the end of the duel, which could have drastically changed the result of the match. same.
For now, the Competition Committee has already decided to dismiss the club's first claim in sports courts for Griezmann's goal that meant the momentary 0-2 draw in their duel with Atlético last week and which went up on the scoreboard after going through the VAR. Espanyol argued that the award of that goal was “a manifest negligence” that ended up causing “an adulteration of the game”.
Competition, however, considers that it does not have the necessary powers to judge this action, given that, according to its arguments, the facts denounced do not respond to any infringement of the rules of the game. The club, for now, has already decided to take this case to Appeal and, if necessary, it will also go to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. A sports route that will be accompanied, in parallel, with the decision to also go to the ordinary courts.
precedents
The precedents of other sports entities in similar cases seem to lean in favor of the club's arguments. The Obradoiro, for example, managed to get the ordinary justice to agree with him and force the ACB to make a place for him in the highest category of Spanish basketball in the 2007-08 season with the conditions of the 1990-91 season after his income was paralyzed again in the 2003-04 campaign. Although, in that case, the admission occurred after several courts agreed with him and the case reached the Superior Court of Justice of Madrid, the one ultimately in charge of settling the conditions of access in the absence of agreement. between the two parties. The ACB wanted the conditions in force at the time of admission to be applied, while the club claimed that they be those at the time the irregularity occurred that prevented it from doing so directly through sports.
In 1995, on the other hand, the then Professional Football League had to expand the competition to 22 teams after an administrative relegation of Sevilla and Celta, for not having presented the corresponding guarantees on time, which was not finally fully effective before the massive protests of his followers.