Barça to get away with Piqué's forced yellow at the Emirates

This week in London we saw another Barça 'show' and it appears that once again they will get away scot-free with their shenanigans. After going 0-2 ahead against Arsenal, Luis Enrique called Piqué and whispered in his ear: “Gerard, get a yellow card and then you’ll be free to play in the quarter finals”. Piqué, following orders just as his tweets are provocative, proceeded to hurl himself at Wellbeck (the challenge was worthy of an ‘orange’ card) and Turkish match official, Cakir duly booked the Barça player. “We’re so cool! We do everything better than the rest and they don’t even bother to say anything or speak out. Hurray for the nirvana that is the world of Barça”. This is probably the thought process of Luis Enrique and Piqué, as they are aware there will be no comeback for their actions. Let me explain myself...

Five years ago in Amsterdam, Mourinho found himself embroiled in a pickle. In a Champions League tie against Ajax, Dudek had a word with Casillas, who in turn spoke to Ramos. Mou himself got a message through to Xabi Alonso and subsequently during the discourse of the match both players forced yellow cards that saw them free to play in the round of sixteen. A common habit in the modern game but the staging of these incidents was somewhat over the top.

As Madrid are ‘not so cool’, they paid the price with a UEFA sanction that saw a two match ban for Mourinho (subsequently reduced to one after an appeal) along with a 40.000 euro fine for the Portuguese coach. 20.000 euro sanctions a piece for Xabi and Ramos, 10.000 for Casillas, 5.000 for Dudek and the club were hit with a 120.000 euro penalty.

Just a few months later, Iniesta carried out a similar stunt during a tie against Shakhtar. The UEFA Disciplinary Commission requested that the midfielder be sanctioned and following a counter claim from Barça, the case was over-ruled (as always).

It really wrangles with me that Madrid seems to be the only club who are forced to pay for their sins. Madrid gets it wrong with Cheryshev in the cup and are subsequently eliminated. Barça only show up with ten players for a cup semi-final and get away with the incident being able to participate in the following year’s competition. Fans at Camp Nou throw a pigs head onto the pitch and a ‘Clasico’ is suspended for 22 minutes but there is no talk of their stadium being closed as a result. Over time Madrid have been forced to play at the likes of Mestalla, La Rosaleda, Rico Pérez...We pay for our errors, Barça, never, never, never. How cool it is to be Barcelona!

(Tomás Roncero heads up the Real Madrid section of Diario AS and makes no secret of his love for the team.)