Atletico Madrid striker Diego Costa has been banned for eight games after he was sent off for insulting referee Jesus Gil Manzano’s mother in last Saturday’s defeat to Barcelona.
Costa was shown a straight red card in the 28th minute of the match after he approached Gil Manzano in the middle of the pitch and shouted in his face. The details of his outburst were included the referee’s report following the game and the audio of the incident was reviewed by the league’s refereeing committee.
Atletico Madrid have 10 days to appeal the ban. The Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) sanctioned Costa four matches for his comments to the referee and added another four matches of sanction after Costa was seen grabbing Gil Manzano’s arm after the red card was shown.
If the suspension is not appealed, the Spanish international will miss the rest of the season as Atletico only have seven La Liga fixtures remaining. Last Saturday’s 2-0 defeat to title rivals Barcelona left Diego Simeone’s side 11 points adrift of the league leaders, while Atletico have also been eliminated from the Champions League and the Copa del Rey.
The RFEF also fined Costa €6,010 and Atletico €2,800.
After Saturday’s match, Simeone blamed the red card on bad luck and said that Barcelona players get away with similar incidents.
“I asked the referee if what he said was so bad because we have seen Barca players do the same thing, saying things right in the referee’s face and they did not get sent off, they got away with it,” Simeone said.
“If Costa really said what the referee claims he did, then he was correctly sent off, but we must be doing something wrong as we have had seven players sent off in 11 games.”
Speaking after Barcelona’s 1-0 win at Manchester United on Wednesday, Costa’s international teammate Jordi Alba said an eight match ban would be “excessive”.
“I hope the punishment will be small for his sake,” Alba told Spanish website Marca. “To punish him with an eight-match ban seems excessive to me, but I can’t do anything about it.”