Racism, confusing decisions, bad refereeing – La Liga is always full of problems

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La Liga is back! And the problems too. Not all problems carry the same weight, but they all contribute to giving the Spanish league a bad image.

Let’s start with the most serious – racism. Real Madrid’s Vincius Jnior was the subject of racist attacks during his game against Real Valladolid which prompted the player to file a complaint on social media.

Racists keep going to stadiums and watching the biggest club in the world closely and La Liga keep doing nothing, he said.

The La Liga president followed up with a deaf response.

In La Liga we have been fighting racism for years, Tebas wrote on Twitter.

@Vinicius Junior it’s unfortunate, unfair and wrong to post that LaLiga does nothing about racism. Get better informed. We are at your disposal so that together we can move in the same direction.

Such a statement is muted as racism continues to be a problem of this magnitude, and it doesn’t seem like there has been much progress for a long time.

Unfortunately, racist incidents are nothing new and have affected players from almost every team. Dani Alves memorably ate a banana thrown at him during a racist taunt while playing for FC Barcelona against Villarreal, and that was almost 9 years ago now. It wasn’t the first time either, as it was a persistent problem for as long as anyone can remember. It does not appear that the problem has improved significantly in recent years.

On another front, there is the Robert Lewandowski situation. The Polish striker was given a three-game ban after touching his nose and pointing at the referee, which he said was a signal for his manager, but the referee took an offensive gesture.

Many pundits deemed the punishment excessive, so Barcelona appealed. The appeal went nowhere within the Spanish federation, but an ordinary court, not affiliated with the federation, found it compelling enough to order that it be frozen pending a final decision. Although this was beyond the control of the federations, it created a bizarre situation in which Lewandowski didn’t even receive the automatic one-match ban for a red card. The suspension, between one and three matches, could still be pronounced by the court but for the moment Lewandowski could play.

The court could have made a decision at any time over the past month as domestic matches have been suspended due to the FIFA World Cup. At the very least, they could have ordered Lewandowski to serve one game of suspension, pending a decision on the next two. The way it was handled was very strange.

Espanyol complained to the Spanish FA, hoping to overturn the result of the match, which ended in a draw. But it would be absurd for them to try to cancel a match already played which they themselves approved due to a court ruling. Who knows what comes next.

The match itself showed more incompetence. The chief referee, Mateu Lahoz, gave yellow cards everywhere and even a few reds. He lost full control of the game in an unnecessary way. It comes after a similar poor performance at the FIFA World Cup, when he was again criticized for his decisions while overseeing Argentina against the Netherlands. The fact that Lahoz continues to have performances like these, and is still considered by the Spanish federation and league as the best referee in the country, is strange.

Overall, La Liga, the Spanish federation and the judiciary have failed to deal with the various issues facing football in Spain. This tarnished the reputation of the league. which is quite sad when the football itself has been excellent. It looks like La Liga continues to be one of the best leagues in the world, if not the best, despite it.

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