Standard Liège’s Carcela Faces Lengthy Ban for Obscene Gesture to Referee

"The Moroccan appeared before the Disputes Commission of the Belgian Union on Tuesday to explain his gesture, the debates lasted more than an hour. Carcela had made a middle finger and an obscene gesture to the referee after the latter had disallowed his goal (a VAR decision). The verdict will be handed down on February 26.

"It is an inappropriate gesture. A file has been compiled based on echoes in the press and relevant elements. Mr. Carcela apologized on Twitter for this gesture and this must be considered as an extra-judicial admission. It should not be trivialized. The indicative table allows for a suspension of one to four matches. Two, that remains clement," said Federal Prosecutor Kris Wagner, who requested the two-match suspension.

Note that Standard won the game 2-1 and that on the same Tuesday the Disputes Commission of the Belgian Football Union (URBSFA) fined Standard de Liège 2,500 euros and RSC Anderlecht 3,000 euros because of the behavior of their supporters during this match which took place on February 3.