APAF requests urgent response after aggression to the referee in the Women's League

A Portuguese Association of Football Arbitrators (APAF) today considered “extreme gravity” the push given on Sunday by a leader of Racing Power to the fourth referee and demands an urgent response in disciplinary matters.

“APAF requires competent authorities to act with the utmost speed, firmness and rigour in the establishment of all facts and in the application of exemplary disciplinary sanctions, proportionate to the seriousness of acts and truly dissuasive of future violent behaviour,” the body said.

The situation took place in the women's I League match between Vitória de Guimarães and Racing Power (2-1), after the main referee expelled the visiting club president Mariana Duarte, who, on her way out, violently pushed the fourth referee.

“ This is an episode of extreme gravity, which constitutes an intolerable attack on the physical integrity of those who have the responsibility to ensure compliance with the Laws of the Game. This type of behavior has even more serious contours, when they come from those who exercise responsibility and who should be the first to give the example of respect, discipline and fair play”, says the association of referees.

Still on Sunday, the direction of Racing Power recognizes the push of its president, but says that it must be “squared in the full context in which it occurred, and cannot be dissociated from the events that preceded it”.