Barcelona's Javier Mascherano may receive four-match ban for insulting linesman

Javier Mascherano recieved a red card for insulting the linesman

Argentine defender Javier Mascherano, who saw a red card in the closing moments of the match against SD Eibar, may receive a four-match ban for insulting the linesman, as per AS. According to the match official’s post-match report, Mascherano was heard shouting, “La concha de tu madre (your mother’s c*unt)” towards the linesman.

The defender was shown a straight card when he was arguing about the large number of fouls his side were incurring from the Eibar players in rapid succession. The match official showed five yellow cards to Eibar players (Escalante, Junca, Pantic, Capa and Eddy) while Barcelona were shown three (Rakitic, Neymar and Piqué) apart from Mascherano’s red. The Basque team who seemed to be targetting Neymar committed 18 fouls in all, with 6 of them directly on the Brazilian.

But Barcelona manager Luis Enrique stood by his player and, in the post-match press conference, stated: “Javier wasn’t directing the comment at the referee or linesman when he said what he said. It’s a typical Argentine expression. That needs to be taken into account.”

Mascherano may miss El Clasico if handed four-match ban

Former Elche player Damian Suarez was handed a four-match ban last season when he was found guilty of a similar infringement. The duration of the ban could determine the availability of Mascherano for the Clasico against Real Madrid set to be played on 21 November. If the Argentine does end up getting a four-match ban, he will surely miss the match against their rivals Real Madrid.

Barcelona defender Gerard Pique was also subjected to a similar ban very early in the season during the second leg of the Spanish Super Cup where his team lost 5-1 on aggregate. He too had received a four-match ban after he was heard shouting “I s*** on your f***ing mother,” towards the linesman.

Barcelona managed to get all three points from the game courtesy of Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez. the former Liverpool hitman, who had managed to score two goals before Mascherano’s sending off, added one more goal to his name, making it a hat-trick seconds after the incident.

The Catalan club are tied at the top of La Liga with current leaders Real Madrid with 21 points each. With Lionel Messi’s knee injury and Mascherano’s potential 4-match ban, Real Madrid seem to have the advantage going into the game.