Preparations For Getafe and Who Is Minding The Store?

Amidst all the drama, Los Blancos began preparing to meet Getafe on Saturday.

Borja Mayoral, A. Tejero, Mariano, Marcos Llorente, Lienhart, and Odegaard from Castilla joined the first team. Kiko & Pepe worked indoors while Sese, Dani & The Baby continued their recovery routine.

So…time for the elephant in the room aka Real Madrid’s latest clusterfuck of drama. Watishista mygypsyspirit is writing a rant about how things have been going with the team lately so I won’t get too deep into this.

Suffice to say, we’re a laughingstock and deserve to be. As I said to mygypsyspirit “Who is minding the store?” I find it really hard to believe that NO ONE is keeping track of this shit and Denis “didn’t know” that he was banned.
Even if that is true, *why* is a club with the money and scope of Real Madrid not on top of this sort of thing? We’re always held up to such intense scrutiny – how could something like this slip through the cracks?! How?!

So the ‘Peez had to hold a presser to say “Nuh uh. We are not in the wrong.”

FROM REALMADRID.COM

Florentino Pérez: “Real Madrid did not field an ineligible player”

“The ban should not take effect because Cheryshev was not personally notified”, he said.

Florentino Pérez spoke to the media at the Santiago Bernabéu: “In relation to Real Madrid’s fielding of the player Denis Cheryshev in the Copa del Rey match against Cádiz yesterday, and after analysing the events in today’s meeting of the Board of Directors, we wish to state that the one-match ban for accumulating three yellow cards in the Copa del Rey tournament last season, when the player was representing Villarreal, should in our view not take effect, because nobody notified the player of the ban, as is clearly stipulated in article 41 section two of the Spanish Football Federation’s Disciplinary Code, which states: … punitive resolutions will not take effect until the parties concerned have been personally notified”.

“It’s an essential, basic principle of all punitive law that that the punishment does not take effect, and it is as if it did not exist, until the party receiving the punishment is notified”.

“As the player Cheryshev states, nobody notified him of the ban, and for that reason it should not take effect. Real Madrid were not aware of its existence, nobody notified the club of its existence, neither the player nor Villarreal nor the RFEF. The necessity for personal notification was explicitly acknowledged by the Administrative Court for Sport in its recent resolution of 30 January 2015”.

“Even if we accepted that the ban should take effect, which we deny, it must be considered to be automatically wiped out in accordance with the provisions of the final subsection of article 112, paragraph two, section one, which says, and I quote: … in the Campeonato de España / Copa de S. M. El Rey, at the end of the third knockout round, all participants’ existing cycles of cautions will be automatically annulled, and a new cycle shall commence for all participants in the round of 32”.

“As a result, we believe that the ban should not take effect because the player was not personally notified, and even if he was, which in our view was not the case, we also believe that it was wiped out. In summary, Real Madrid did not field an ineligible player. That is our opinion after analysing the situation with the club’s legal services”.

Pérez then responded to the questions of the media outlets in attendance:

“What happened to yesterday is without precedent for us, that’s the fact of the matter, because whenever there has been a ban or a player has come here carrying a ban, he has known about it because he was notified of it, and that’s what makes us avoid fielding him. Nobody can be in any doubt that the player was not notified, because it would be absurd if he were notified and he played. That doesn’t make any sense”.

Notification
“And if he was not notified, there is jurisprudence in that respect. If the player is unaware of it, if the club is unaware of it because nobody has notified them, because the Federation or Villarreal could have notified them of it, then Madrid can only analyse the nature of this situation and it’s what I’ve said to you: we believe that the ban should not take effect because the player was not personally notified, which is what the code says”.

Ban
“We’ll certainly take it to the TAD, because there is jurisprudence and we have a duty to defend what we believe is our right. If there had been any negligence by anyone, any notification that had gone astray or anyone who had not acted correctly, we would acknowledge that and we would apologise and we would take the measures we have to take. But the fact is that, quite honestly, if we were not told by the player, who is the individual who needs to know about it, if we were not told by either the Federation or Villarreal, who are aware of it, it was impossible for us to know about it”.

Federation
“It’s being said that there was a circular that was received by all clubs. That’s not true. We did not receive anything, and the Federation, with whom we have spoken, know that they did not send us anything. On the other hand, they did send us a list of suspended players for youth footballers in the División de Honor. For that reason, we have acted as always. Furthermore, particular emphasis was placed on checking everything yesterday, at the request of Rafa Benítez, who said so to Chendo, because there were a lot players, some foreigners, others coming in from Castilla, and there’s always the possibility of confusion. Particular rigour is always applied, but yesterday all the more so”.

Party responsible
“Right now there is nobody that we have found to have acted negligently. We will continue working and we will see how this ends, but this is the conclusion that we have reached after meeting with our legal services and analysing the situation with the Board of Directors”.

“We did not receive any form of notification.”

“In our football management area, there is an administrative department that deals with this; it has never had any problem and analyses all cases except those such as this one, which are not known about because nobody has told us about it. And we believe that if the player was not personally notified, his ban should not take effect”.

Cádiz
“I did not speak to their president either yesterday or today, nor is it for me to tell anyone what they have to do. They will have acted in their best interests”.

Matchday delegate
“What the matchday delegate, Chendo, and the director of football, and everyone involved in this issue wants is the best for Real Madrid, but nobody believes they have committed any act of negligence, and we believe that nobody informed the club or the player. It was impossible for us to act otherwise”.

Members
“We haven’t discussed refunding money if there is no second leg, because we’re at a juncture at which we hope to come out of this issue with a positive outcome. But the club’s members and ticket holders should not worry, because everything we do is for their benefit and their stability, and to ensure that this club remains the greatest club in the world”.

Karim Benzema
“I believe that Karim has to be allowed a basic right that we all enjoy, and that is the presumption of innocence. And I believe that there have been people who have acted very well, such as [Nicolas] Sarkozy, and others who have not acted so well and who have already judged him, furthermore people of signifcance and who in my view have acted quite poorly. He does not deserve to be judged before the judges have done so”.

Other cases
“What the regulation says is that punitive resolutions will not take effect until the parties concerned have been personally notified. It’s not me saying that. It’s not an interpretation, but the exact words of the regulation. I guess that if Athletic Club have done that today [left Raúl García out], it’s because they were aware of it, but we weren’t. I imagine that Atlético Madrid will have notified the player and he told Athletic, which is what is reasonable. The person who needs to know about it is the party concerned, and this regulation is there precisely for that. But if nobody notified the player, then he didn’t know about it”.

Rafa Benítez
“I spoke to the coach yesterday. We’re all very sad as Madridistas because we’re facing a situation that had never happened. But it isn’t an act of negligence, because nodody knew about it. And if the player doesn’t know about it, and he’s the one who needs to know about it, because he wasn’t personally notified, then it’s difficult for us to know about it. One of those things has arisen that don’t tend to ever happen, it had never happened to us and we’re very upset about it and aim to continue working to try to resolve this issue, and we’re convinced that these things will never happen to us again”.

Cheryshev
“I haven’t spoken to him. Others have spoken to him, and he’s calm. He went out there to play because he was convinced that he could play. Nobody notified him, or the club, of anything. It’s said that we were sent a circular, and I can assure you that nobody received anything here, that the player was completely unaware, and it was an unfortunate occurrence where we are not to blame for something and the regulation is very clear”.

Rights
“We’ve been looking into yesterday’s case and we believe that the lack of any notification for the player or the club leads us to defend our rights as we think that we have them. And if it’s not tomorrow at the Federation, it’ll be before the Administrative Court for Sport. I think that in practice when clubs are notified of bans, if the player is still at the same club then perhaps there’s no need to say anything to him. But if the circumstance arises that that player leaves the club and he hasn’t been personally notified, then this circumstance arises that isn’t normal. We’ve experienced this unfortunate occurrence and we’ll assume all our responsibilities. I’ve come out, I’ve spoken and we’ll see what happens because we believe that we’re in the right”.

Zinedine Zidane
“I love Zinedine Zidane, both as a coach and previously as a player. He’s learning his trade to be a great coach, and I think that’s what he’s going to be and I wish him the very best. And if one day he becomes coach of Real Madrid, it’ll be a pleasure. But at this moment in time we have a great coach, he’s on the right track and we have to let him work. We put in a bad performance against Barcelona, but now we’re getting ourselves back on course. And now a special night such as yesterday’s, when we won the match, becomes a sad one because of this unfortunate occurrence”.

Chants
“What upset me yesterday were the unfortunate circumstances that I’ve discussed and that because of the miscommunication of a ban we’re in this predicament, and we’re going to work to resolve it. If it’s not tomorrow at the Federation, it will be before the Administrative Court for Sport, and that’s what I’m most concerned about”.

Sigh. Listen, we always pontificate about how we hold ourselves to a higher standard because “we’re Real Madrid” Well, when are we going to stop making excuses and act like it? If we fucked up, we fucked up. Admit it, get disqualified and move on. Everyone makes mistakes. What gets on my nerves is that we can never admit when we’re wrong. It’s always someone else’s fault. Wouldn’t it be refreshing for the ‘Peez to get up there and go “Welp, it’s been one of those days. Some asshole spilled coffee on the paperwork and it got misfiled and well, yeah, our bad. We’ll take our punishment.” I’d have a lot more respect if that happened. I just find this whole thing exhausting along with everything else that’s been going on this season. It’s. Too. Much.

I’m pretty much Mary-J-Blige-on-the-2002-Grammys over this shit.

Yep, that is exactly how I feel, stomping it out and howling my rage at the idiocy. Leaving it all on the stage. OVER. IT.

No more drama.  Please.

I just want football. And my team back. Not this pale imitation. They seem sad at the moment and not up for it. I’m kinda feeling the same way. I know this too will pass but right now, it’s just hard. Really, really hard.

While I was writing this “The Wiz Live” was on in the background. Wouldn’t it be nice if Real Madrid could click it’s collective heels three times and get back home where they belonged? C’mon, you know Sergio has some ruby slippers somewhere. (If not, I’m sure Guti does).

Hala Madrid y nada mas (even when they’re fucking up).

– Lozil