Real Madrid midfielder Fede Valverde will be banned for a minimum of four games for his alleged assault on Alex Baena two weekends ago.
As per Diario AS, the Anti-Violence Committee have passed the matter onto the Competition Committee, meaning the Uruguayan will face some sort of ban. On Wednesday both Valverde and Baena will testify to the Committee, after which they have a month to decide his fate. They will also be presented with the medical report from the incident and the police complaint filed by Baena.
This is the lesser of two evils from Valverde’s perspective. Had the matter gone to the Ministry for Sport, he could have faced a ban of between one and six months from all sporting venues. As it is, Valverde will face a ban that will start at four games and could rise to twelve, depending on how the Committee view the incident. The Madrid daily state that the most likely course of action is the four-game ban, provided Valverde recognises his actions.
This will not affect the legal process the police are carrying out, although that is likely to result in a fine for Valverde.
Should the Competition Committee come to their decision before the end of the month, and take that minimum option, it could work out reasonably well for Valverde if he is only banned for their league matches. Los Blancos are focused on the Copa del Rey final and the Champions League, thus missing some matches that look unlikely to influence their season majorly is arguably the best result he could have hoped for.
