Outrage at Racing de Santander: defender Íñigo Sainz-Maza was sent off in the 93rd minute of the duel against Elche for asking the match referee, Jon Ander González Esteban, to stopped the crash when a 58-year-old fan went into cardiac arrest in the stands
“Íñigo was worried about what was happening in the stands, we did not understand that the referee did not stop the game in the event of an extremely serious incident,” explained the racing coach, José Alberto López Menéndez, in the subsequent press conference. “No one has disrespected anyone, what has been experienced has been absurd”he insisted.
The coach’s words, however, contrast with the referee’s version in the match report, which states that the player received the red card “for getting up from the bench and leaving the technical area insistently demanding to the fourth referee that the match be stopped due to a medical incident in the stands”.
They also do not coincide with the report presented by the LaLiga delegate, Juan Cantero, he noted that Sainz-Maza had approached him to ask about the protocol to follow in the face of this type of case and why the match was not stopped with such a serious situation occurring in the stands, according to reports Relief.
Chronology of expulsion
The regulation 90 minutes of play were about to expire when the alarm went through El Sardinero: a 58-year-old fan was suffering two cardiac arrests, which led the Racing doctor, José Fernández Dívar, to leave his place on the bench to help. quickly to the man, whom he managed resuscitate before he was taken to hospitalwhere it is stable.
At no point was the clash stopped, something to which the referee of the match is not obliged, since there is no protocol as such for this type of case despite the fact that this decision has been made in other similar cases this season, so Íñigo Sainz-Maza approached the LaLiga delegate to ask what to do in these types of situations.
Although the defender spoke calmly with Cantero, the referee approached the sideline and showed him the red card, which caused the footballer to disbelieve. Racing de Santander has already announced its intention to appeal the expulsion.
