Real Madrid’s bid to overturn Cup expulsion denied

MADRID (Reuters) – Real Madrid’s bid to get their expulsion from the King’s Cup temporarily suspended pending a final decision on their appeal has been rejected by the Spanish government’s Disciplinary Committee for Sports (TAD).

Real included the ineligible Denis Cheryshev in their starting lineup for last week’s last 32, first leg game at third-tier Cadiz when he should have been serving a one-match suspension. The Russia forward opened the scoring in a 3-1 victory.

Real president Florentino Perez insisted the club had not broken the rules and said neither Cheryshev, who incurred the sanction playing on loan at Villarreal last season, nor Real were notified that he was banned.

The Spanish soccer federation (RFEF) sharply criticised Real in an initial nine-page ruling, saying they should have been aware of the ban, and as well as disqualifying the club fined them 6,001 euros ($6,598.70)

The RFEF rejected Real’s appeal on Thursday and the club filed a further appeal with the TAD, which included a request to have the expulsion suspended.

The TAD said after a meeting on Friday it had no grounds to suspend the federation’s decision to expel Real but that it needed more time to make a final decision on the appeal.

The Cup return leg was due to be played at Real’s Bernabeu stadium next Wednesday.

The TAD, part of the government’s sports council (CSD), normally meets every Friday and a CSD spokesman said it was not immediately clear whether they would bring their next session forward to try to reach a decision before Wednesday.

($1 = 0.9094 euros)

(Reporting by Iain Rogers, editing by Toby Davis)