Serbia’s Match Drama: Ronaldo Risks FIFA’s Hammer

Cristiano Ronaldo could face a FIFA sanction for his furious reaction to the denial of Portugal’s winning goal against Serbia on Saturday night.

Ronaldo poked the ball over the line in added time to seemingly give his side a 3-2 victory, only for the officials and absence of goalline technology to let the Juventus star down.

Article 11 in the Disciplinary Code reads: “Offensive conduct or violation of the principles of fair play” before going into more detail about what that entails.

It says: “Associations and clubs, as well as their players, officials or any other member or person performing a function on their behalf, must comply with the Laws of the Game, the FIFA Statutes, and the regulations, directives, guidelines, circulars and the decisions of FIFA; likewise, they must comply with the principles of fair play, loyalty, and integrity.”

It has not yet been confirmed whether or not Ronaldo has breached the rules of Article 11.

If he is deemed guilty, Explica reports that Article 12 then details the punishment, saying the ban could be at least one match or an appropriate period of time for unsportsmanlike conduct towards an opponent or anyone other than a match official.

Former Portugal international Fernando Meira blasted Ronaldo after the match for his ‘unacceptable behavior’ which ‘set a bad example’ for others.

 Following the decision, Portugal boss Fernando Santos revealed that the referee had apologized for the mistake.

He told RTP: “We scored a goal that was not given when the ball went in. In a match of this level, that isn’t possible.

“The referee apologized to me in the booth and told me he was embarrassed. I was in the dressing room with him and apologized to me.

“He had told me on the pitch that he was going to see the images and that if it was the case he was calling me to apologize – and so it was.

“I told him on the pitch that there was no VAR or goal-line technology – one of the things he told me was that the goal line was important – but I told him that the ball was half a meter inside the goal.

“There was no obstacle between the goalkeeper and the goal line. [It is a] problem because we drew. We have to rethink.

“The referees are human and make mistakes, but that’s why there is the VAR and the goal-line technology to avoid this.”