The sports director of Espanyol, Domingo Catoira, has been sanctioned with a two-week suspension by the Competition Committee. Said statement, he explains in his writing that he takes this measure, unusual, for maintaining “attitudes of contempt or inconsideration towards the directing referees or sports authorities”, although he does not qualify what the suspension itself implies.
As reflected in the minutes of the Espanyol-Athletic match by Munuera Montero, “after the end of the first half, when we were already in the changing room tunnel, a person addressed me in the following terms: ‘the yellow ones for us always and never for them.” That person was identified by the referee as Domingo Catoira.
Munuera Montero’s performance in the first half was widely protested at Espanyol, for forgiving Dani GarcÃa the second yellow card after a harsh foul on Braithwaite and for disallowing a goal for the Dane himself after a prior touch with Joselu’s outstretched arm. The referee gave a goal until, at the request of the VAR, he decided to cancel it. It must be remembered that Espanyol publicly complained after the game about the arbitration and the use of VAR. Luis GarcÃa, Espanyol coach, also did so at a press conference.
This is not the first time that Catoira has gone down to the locker room to protest the referee’s actions, since it already happened during the match against Rayo Vallecano on matchday 2 of the championship. “At half-time in the game and in the changing room tunnel, the sports director of Espanyol, Domingo Catoira, addressed me in the following terms: ‘Come on, you will have been comfortable.’ At that time there was no sanction for the sports director, who has reoffended.
