Jose Mourinho reached for a Portuguese idiom about a cat that no longer bothers to hide. The Real Madrid manager used it to describe what, in his view, Spanish football authorities had just done to his star forward.
“They do things shamelessly now. The cat is out of the bag now,” Mourinho told reporters on Wednesday evening, after Real Madrid completed a 4-3 Champions League comeback at Roma. The Royal Spanish Football Federation’s disciplinary committee had announced Vinicius Júnior’s four-match suspension roughly two hours before kick-off in the Italian capital.
The ban stems from Vinicius’ red card on 10 October, when the Brazilian thought he had scored Madrid’s second goal at Villarreal. A VAR review disallowed the goal and sent him off instead, after officials ruled he had pulled Nathan Saliba’s hair in the build-up. Madrid still won 1-0.
Referee Isidro Díaz de Mera’s report produced two separate sanctions: a two-match ban for violent conduct away from the ball, and a further two for aggressive protests toward officials after the dismissal.
Mourinho targets the timing
Mourinho directed his anger at the clock rather than the ruling.
“Do you think it’s normal that a player from a Spanish team, about to play a match that is also important for Spanish football, finds out two hours before the game that he has been handed a four-match suspension?” he said.
“Couldn’t they do it now? Couldn’t they do it tomorrow morning?”
“Real Madrid fans aren’t stupid, and I’ll do everything I can to open people’s eyes.”
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He also took a swipe at Madrid’s broader schedule, pointing to a Wednesday-morning flight to Athens for the AEK fixture and a trip to Valencia the following weekend, with national-team breaks in between.
Appeal rejected
The suspension sidelines Vinicius for La Liga fixtures against Sevilla, Barcelona, Racing de Santander and Valencia. The most high-profile absence is El Clásico, scheduled for Sunday, 25 October at Spotify Camp Nou with kick-off at 9pm local time.
Real Madrid lodged an appeal to reduce the punishment, which the disciplinary committee rejected. Vinicius will serve the ban in full and is scheduled to return to La Liga on 21 November, when Madrid host Celta de Vigo at the Santiago Bernabéu.
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