Scandal: Nacho cleared to play Clasico after ban reduced

The Appeals Committee of the Spanish Football Federation has reduced Nacho Fernández's ban from three games down to two. The captain of Real Madrid was sent off for his nasty tackle on Portu in the Los Blancos victory against Girona that took place last September 30 in Montilivi. According to Cadena Cope, the Merengue defender will therefore be able to play in the Clasico on October 28.

It's a strange decision, with precedents such as, for example, what happened with Lewandowski last season at El Sadar against Osasuna. The Pole was dismissed for two bookings. The player accepted the red card and, on his way off the pitch, touched his nose as a gesture about the referee. That cost him a one-match ban for the red card and two more for the protests. Barça appealed, but nothing happened. The sanction was upheld. In fact, not even the CAS agreed with them. They are absolutely opposite yardsticks: touching your nose, three matches; assaulting an opponent, two matches.      

Nacho's tackle was so bad he himself had to apologize for his action. The competition committee sanctioned him with three matches, but Real Madrid appealed it. The surprising thing is that the Appeals Commission agreed with him and reduced the punishment by one match, only forcing him to sit out two matches, one already done against Osasuna. The second is the trip to Seville on Saturday.