Surprise: Cristiano is already suspended, and a legal loophole reduces the penalty to one day! | Goal.com
A Portuguese press report has delivered a stunning twist in the Cristiano Ronaldo saga, after he walked out of the senior national team's camp during the international break following a disagreement with coach Jorge Jesus.
"The Don" issued an official statement yesterday, Tuesday, apologising to his teammates and the Portuguese people for leaving the camp before the UEFA Nations League match against Denmark, and calling for sanctions to be imposed against him.
Reports have since suggested Ronaldo faces a suspension and a fine under the regulations, with everyone awaiting a decision from the Portuguese Football Federation.
Then a legal expert dropped the bombshell. The suspension, he confirmed, kicked in the moment Ronaldo left the camp.
A lawyer consulted by the newspaper "A Bola" explained that the sanction is practically inevitable, though he pointed to factors working in the Portugal captain's favour.
Gonçalo Almeida talked "A Bola" through the measures triggered by the 41-year-old forward's conduct in Denmark, citing Article 160 of the Portuguese Football Federation's disciplinary regulations. The rule states that a player who "is regularly called up, is absent, or fails to attend without justification a training session, a match, or an activity of the national teams or related to the sporting representation of the Portuguese Football Federation or Portugal, shall be punished with a suspension of between one month and six months, in addition to a fine".
In his view, there is no way of avoiding a sanction once Ronaldo left the camp.
He stressed that the first paragraph is categorical on applying the sanction, while the second paragraph states that "absence or abandonment of play leads to the automatic precautionary suspension of the player".
Almeida, who also serves as a FIFA judge, explained that Ronaldo is therefore "already suspended from participating in or representing the national team".
He added: "Then there are proceedings that the Federation's Disciplinary Council will begin, and Cristiano will be notified, in respect of the principle of due legal process, to give his opinion, and after that we will take a decision which I believe will be very swift".
The captain can also call witnesses, he confirmed, and the Federation's Disciplinary Council "can take action without the need for a formal complaint because the facts are available to everyone".
Ronaldo announced his withdrawal from the camp on 30 September via social media, a day before the Denmark match, and set out his reasons in yesterday's statement. That public admission is expected to work in his favour.
It all hinges on Article 244 of the Portuguese Football Federation's disciplinary regulations, which states that "the accused may, at any time, admit the facts subject to the proceedings", and "if the admission is complete and without reservations, and does not raise doubts about its credibility, no further evidentiary measures are carried out, and the minimum and maximum of the applicable sanctions are reduced by half".
Almeida confirmed that the Portuguese forward "fully and without any reservations admitted leaving the team" in his posts on the matter.
He continued: "Therefore, if the Disciplinary Council acknowledges this, the sanctions will be reduced by half, and in the best-case scenario for the national team captain, the minimum sanction of one month and 510 euros would become a suspension of 15 days and a fine of 255 euros".
Portugal return to the pitch on 14 November to face Denmark in Braga, three days before visiting Wales.
Because the automatic suspension period counts towards any sanction imposed by the Disciplinary Council, Ronaldo could well be available for the next international break.
Everything depends on how quickly the Disciplinary Council rules.
Almeida put it plainly: "If Cristiano comes back, it is not in the interest of the Disciplinary Council or the Federation to suspend him for a long time".
Even so, he is "completely convinced" that "this process will break records for speed (regarding the issuing of the official decision)".
Captaining the national team is "an aggravating circumstance", Almeida acknowledged, yet he stressed that Ronaldo "has no previous disciplinary record" and "has given everything he has to the national team" for more than 20 years. Under the first paragraph of Article 44 of the Philippine Football Federation's disciplinary regulations, "the absence of a disciplinary record in the same season and in the three seasons prior to the season in which the defendant was registered with the Federation", along with "providing valuable services to football", and "commendation of sporting merit" count among the mitigating circumstances to be weighed up.
With no "clear case law" to lean on, Almeida argued, each case must be judged on its own merits.
On that basis, the lawyer played down the year-long ban handed to Ricardo Carvalho from all national team activities in 2011, after he withdrew from a camp with the squad.
So Almeida believes the Disciplinary Council "will certainly not overlook this context" and will not be "immune from all this fuss".
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