Real Madrid director general Jorge Valdano has accused UEFA of victimising the club after Jose Mourinho and four players were charged with improper conduct.
UEFA announced the charges following allegations that Real players Xabi Alonso and Sergio Ramos both deliberately picked up second yellow cards in Tuesday’s Champions League game against Ajax, ruling them out of the final group game against Auxerre.
Iker Casillas and Jerzy Dudek will also have to answer charges after they passed on messages from coach Mourinho to the two players. Ramos and Alonso both picked up second yellow cards for time-wasting in the final minutes of a 4-0 win at the Amsterdam ArenA. The pair will now go into the knockout stage of the competition with their disciplinary slate clean.
However, Valdano believes UEFA have shown a lack of consistency when it comes to disciplinary matters.
“I can’t go into details but there have been many players who have done something similar and were not punished,” Valdano told Cadena Ser.
“[Lyon midfielder] Juninho was penalised financially. [Zlatan] Ibrahimovic and [Walter] Samuel, when they were at Inter, did something similar. There is no way to rely on the regulations.
“What happens at Real Madrid also happens at other clubs but they [UEFA] are not as severe.”
Mourinho was criticised by Arsene Wenger, as the Arsenal manager has called for UEFA to punish Real, although the Frenchman did admit he had considered doing the same thing himself.
“Yes, I think there should be sanctions,” Wenger said. “I do not want to see that, it’s a pity to see that from a big club and, overall, when you see that it gives a bad image of our game – what we don’t want. I respect Real Madrid for their quality and for what they are doing but, whether it’s them or somebody else, you don’t want to see that on the football pitch.
“You can call what they did what you want, but it’s not what you want to see on the football pitch. You want to respect people who pay money to watch a game. What do they want? To watch a football game, not to watch these kind of things. You don’t want to accept that.
“You never say that it doesn’t cross your mind to do that. You have to be completely honest about it, but when you see how it looks on television, I must say it is the best demonstration to think ‘never do that again’ because it looks, frankly, horrible.”
