VALENCIA COULD BE KICKED OUT OF COPA DEL REY
Having beaten the lower league side 1-0, it subsequently came to light that coach Rafa Benitez's introduction of Dennis Serban, a Romanian for Vicente Rodriguez in the 88th minute, violated Spanish rules that stated that only three non-EU players could be on the pitch at any one time.
With Yugoslavian Miroslav Djukic and Argentinians Pablo Aimar (pictured) and Roberto Ayala already playing, Serban's appearance as a substitution went against the competition rules.
Doubt remains over whether or not Ayala has an EU passport, but at the very least this is a major embarrassment for new coach Benitez and at worst could see the manager and club disciplined and kicked out of the competition.
Article 104 of the Spanish Federation of Football rules (RFEF) states that any club that puts out an illegal team will automatically lose the game and a fine of between 500,000-2,000,000 pesetas (£1,877-7508) shall be imposed.
However, there is no hard and fast ruling given that recent examples of this kind of transgression have not been met by the same punishment.
When Jorge Valdano was coach of Real Madrid (October 23 1994) the same situation occurred in a game against Compostela, when Denmark was not in the EU and Michael Laudrup was playing for the capital side.
On that occasion the Disciplinary Committee gave Valdano a £2,500 fine and a month's suspension, along with a minimal fine to the club.
Indeed Valdano appears to have some difficulty with the foreigner ruling, given the fact he was caught again in 1997 when he was manager of Valencia. This time he fielded five rather than the permitted four in a 2-1 win over Racing Santander.
Surprisingly the Cantabrian side did not appeal against Valdano's indiscretions and the result was allowed to stand.
Lower league side Getafe and Real Valladolid were less fortunate in more recent events and both automatically lost their games 3-0 against Compostela and Real Betis respectively and it was a particularly heavy punishment for the Castillian side's Croatian coach Sergio Kresi who was banned for two months, although Getafe's manager escaped punishment.
