Jude Bellingham sanctioned for "disregard towards referees": How many and which games will he miss?

Jude Bellingham has been given a two-game sanction after he saw straight red card last Saturday, and will mis the next Real Madrid games in LaLiga. The Disciplinary Committee of Spanish football has found that the English player showed "attitudes of contempt or disregard towards referees, managers or sports authorities", but eluding the debate of the whether he said "f*ck off" (as an expression to himself) of ""f*ck you" (as an insult).

Instead, the committee believes that the player's attitude was worthy of a punishment, albeit they opted to give him the lesser penalty. According to rule 124, of the Discipline Code, "addressing referees, managers or sports authorities in terms or with attitudes of contempt or disregard, provided that the action does not constitute a more serious offense, will be sanctioned with a suspension of two to three games or for a period of up to one month".

If they had considered that Bellingham did indeed insulted the referee, the sanction could have been much larger, between four and twelve games. According to Bellingham, his words were "I'm talking to you with respect, fuck off", without intent to insult the official. The club provided evidence, including video images and lip-reading analysis, to refute the referee's act, but the committee said that that "the expert evidence and the Club's own effort to interpret it in order to construct its version of what was actually said is undoubtedly very respectable, but insufficient to destroy the presumption of veracity of the arbitration report", as reported by AS.

The club will appeal, although not in time for the player to miss the next two games in LaLiga: against Girona on Sunday, February 23, and Betis on Sunday, March 3. He is cleared for Champions League tonight against Manchester City.