The Conmebol referees committee made the decision after an unsanctioned nudge from Argentina’s Otamendi on Raphinha.
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34th minute of the World Cup qualifying match between Brazil and Argentina. Nicolas Otamendi protects his ball against a Raphinha came to the pressing, and sends him his elbow in the mouth. The Leeds player collapses, before getting up with a bloody mouth. At the time, the main referee Andrés Ismael Cunha Soca Vargas and the one in charge of VAR Esteban Daniel Ostojich Vega has nothing to complain about. Despite Tite’s anger after this draw (0-0). The Brazilian manager reacted by indicating that he was “iinconceivable – to be polite – not to see this Otamendi fault on Raphinha “.
The durísima imagen of Raphinha post codazo de Otamendi in San Juan. pic.twitter.com/xgXnYwcL0f
– SportsCenter (@SC_ESPN) November 17, 2021
And it seems that the Conmebol is of the same opinion. She obviously did not appreciate that the referees decided not to sanction this gesture of the Argentine defender with a red card. The South American body has chosen to suspend the two officials from all the competitions it organizes “for an indefinite period”, after finding “serious and manifest errors in the exercise of their functions”. Otamendi’s gesture was qualified as “violent conduct”, putting “at risk the physical integrity” of Raphinha.