Real Sociedad's Juanmi booked for Pablo Raez tribute... and then sent off!
Sometimes you're left with the feeling the rules in football need to be a little more flexible
That a player can be punished with a yellow card for celebrating a goal by paying tribute to someone who has recently away speaks poorly of some aspects of the rules in football.
This is what happened during the Real Sociedad - Eibar game, which opened the 25th round of fictures in La Liga, when Juanmi Gonzalez revealed a T-shirt -- without completely removing his shirt -- carrying a message for Pablo Raez, who lost his fight with cancer earlier this week.
Juanmi put Real Sociedad 1-0 up, taking advantage of a good cross from Odriozola, and the first thing he did was reveal the message for Pablo Raez, an athlete from the same area of Spain as the forward. "Siempre fuerte, DEP Pablo Raez" (Always strong, RIP Pablo Raez) were the words written down.
Undiano Mallenco, without thinking about the meaning behind the message, showed the yellow card. And then a second yellow card followed in the second half, with Juanmi sent off in a game which ended with both sides down to 10 men.
A stoppage time equaliser saw Eibar leave Real Sociedad with a point as the Basque side missed the chance to move temporarily above Atletico Madrid into fourth.
