Sports Minister Miguel Cardenal has flatly denied a report claiming he engineered Real Madrid’s Copa del Rey elimination.
Madrid were kicked out of the Cup for fielding Denis Cheryshev against Cadiz when the winger should have been serving a suspension from last season.
Los Blancos appealed their expulsion, unsuccessfully, but a report in OK Diario alleged Cardenal instructed a member of the Sports Administrative Tribunal [TAD], Carmen Valverde, to pretend to be ill and miss the vote on Madrid’s case.
The report claims Valverde was absent from the vote and therefore unable to find in favour of Madrid, with the chairman of TAD, Enrique Amaldo, instead deciding the case against the club.
AS contacted Cardenal over the claims and he rejected them ‘completely and categorically,’ and is said to be considering legal action against the newspaper for their ‘totally false and nonsense’ allegation.
OK Diario’s sports editor however stands by the story, and says there is a recording of the conversation between Cardenal and Valverde.
AS notes, however, that their sources say the vote on Madrid’s appeal was five to one against, and so there was no casting vote required.