Colombian Johan Mojica, who plays as a defender for Elche in Spain, was sanctioned with two games for his expulsion last Saturday against Valencia, a duel complaining the score at 0-1. According to the minutes, the Colombian saw the red card for saying “you are a bastard” to referee Miguel Ángel Ortiz Arias, after failing to point out a possible foul in the last minutes.
Faced with this sanction, Elche used a judicial expert expert in facial language to demonstrate in its allegations that its Colombian player did not insult the central judge of the match and thus avoid a possible serious penalty, as revealed on Wednesday by the president of the entity, Joaquín Buitrago.
After this situation, Mojica will miss Elche's next two commitments: to Athletic at home and Real Sociedad as a local. He will once again be available to host Mallorca, in a direct duel for salvation in Primera.
“It is clear that the player does not say what the record says. We have had to turn to an expert like those who work in the courts of justice to make it clear that he did not make that insult,” explained Buitrago.
The president admitted that the club knows that “there are few options for success because the referee's criteria are not usually changed”, but he trusted that “five or ten minutes will be spent analyzing the action after the expert report and the images.”
On the other hand, for the suspension, the Competition Committee relied on article 117 of the disciplinary code, which mentions that: “Attitudes of contempt or disregard towards referees, managers or sports authorities”. Now, it should be borne in mind that according to this article the Colombian could have had a sanction of between four and twelve matches, so the punishment was less than expected.
For its part, the Spanish team submitted an appeal to the Committee to demonstrate that the left-handed winger did not insult the referee, with images and a report by an expert in facial language. However, it did not prosper to free him from any sanction.
“The chances of success are few because the referee's criteria are not usually changed,” President Joaquín Buitrago declared this Wednesday at a press conference. In addition, he did not rule out that if this refusal occurred, Elche could go to Appeal for a new appeal.
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