Soccer shameful moments: disobedience on the field

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Fights between players of the same club or disobedience to the coach, Latin American Post reviews some other cases similar to the Carabao Cup final

At the end of the game of the EFL Cup (Carabao Cup for publicity), in which Manchester City played against Chelsea in London, a scene rarely seen in the European soccer happened. According to RCN Radio, it all started when the City striker, Sergio Agüero, finished off against Kepa's goal. With this shot the mentioned goalkeeper stretched so much that he suffered a discomfort in one of his legs.

Leer en español: Vergüenzas futbolísticas: desobediencia en el campo de juego

To the public, the coaching staff of Chelsea and even the referees' surprise, the act of disobedience occurred when the Italian coach, Sarri, decided to change the Spanish goalkeeper for the Argentine, Willy Caballero. After this, Kepa sullenly shouted to the coaching staff that he was fine and, therefore, he was not going to leave the field. According to the FM, the fury and anger seized the aforementioned Italian manager, so he asked the referee team to make the change.

However, this never happened and finally Chelsea lost in penalties against City (4: 3).

What does the FIFA regulation say about this fact?

FIFA, foreseeing any kind of scenarios that can occur in soccer matches, wrote a paragraph explaining what would happen if a player decides not to leave the field. Well, as the Marca portal indicated, there are expensive rules when making player changes, or failing that, when refusing to be substituted. Paragraph 3 of the FIFA, which indicates the substitution procedure, explains that "if a player who is going to be replaced refuses to leave, the match will continue".

That is, FIFA gives liberty to players who decide not to leave the field. However, as indicated by the Properati portal, this rule does not exempt players from being sanctioned by their own clubs, and this is exactly what happened. Chelsea fined Kepa with a week without pay .

Read also: Soccer shames: Osorio is not the only one

Similar cases in soccer?

What happened in the mentioned final is a fact rarely seen, but this does not mean that there are no precedents. Examples of this act have been made by players like Messi, Jared Borgetti and Ariel Ortega. Messi, in a game against Ibar in 2015, refused to leave the field after the coach requested the change. As El Universal indicated , Barcelona was winning comfortably, so Messi did not consider that the change was justified.

On the other hand, and as explained by this same media, this situation was seen in Argentina in 1996. This was what happened: "The referee threw out goalkeeper Tito Bonano and coach Ramón Díaz wanted to substitute Ariel Ortega with Germán Burgos. Ortega refused to leave, so Enzo Francescoli took back the substition and the one that came out was Montserrat. Ortega stayed, scored and River won 4-3". Finally, this situation also occurred in the Copa Libertadores (2005) when Jared Borgetti, Pachuca player, refused to leave the field. El Universal stressed that that match was lost by Pachuca against Chivas.

LatinAmerican Post | Miguel Díaz

Translated from "Vergüenzas futbolísticas: desobediencia en el campo de juego"