March 24 – Fernando Santos, the coach of the Portuguese team who was in charge of Greece at the World Cup last year in Brazil, has had his FIFA penalties halved on appeal to the Court for Aribtiration for Sport (CAS).
CAS still found that Santos had behaved improperly during the World Cup match between Costa Rica and Greece where he was banished to the stands in the last 16 play off game against Costa Rica after engaging in a verbal tirade at the referee. The Greeks eventually lost 5-3 on penalties.
Santos had his eight match ban suspended while his appeal to CAS was considered. The ban was suspended at a crucial time for Santos’ new team Portugal who faced Denmark in their second Euro 2016 qualifier after having had a disastrous start to their qualifying campaign losing 1-0 to Albania. Portugal won the away fixture 1-0 with a goal from Ronaldo.
Originally fined SFr20,000 ($19,320) and given an eight game ban, Santos had the fine reduced to SFr10,000 ($9,660) and the ban reduced to four games with two of those suspended for a six-month probationary period.
CAS found that Santos’s conduct was improper citing his “protesting against the referee and casting doubts on his impartiality”, but could not find the other facts put forward by FIFA to be “sufficiently established” and hence the original punishment was deemed “excessive”.
Portugal’s next fixture is at home to Serbia in a Euro 2016 qualifier this Sunday, followed by a friendly against Cape Verde March 31.
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