According to Mundo Deportivo, both José Mourinho and Vinicius have questioned the timing of the Spanish Football Federation's Disciplinary Committee's announcement of Vinicius's four-match ban.
The report states that both Mourinho and Vinicius expressed dissatisfaction with the timing of the ban's announcement. They questioned why the penalty could not have been announced earlier or postponed until Thursday, rather than announcing it during the match against Roma.
As Mundo Deportivo previously reported, this delay was related to Spain's National Day holiday on Monday, October 12.
Normally, disciplinary sanctions from the Spanish Football Federation are announced on Wednesday mornings. According to standard procedure, the deadline for all parties to submit appeals ends on Tuesday afternoon, after which the three members of the Disciplinary Committee meet to review the relevant materials and make a decision.
However, because Monday was a Spanish national holiday, the relevant procedures had to be postponed by several hours.
According to Article 24 of the Spanish Football Federation's Disciplinary Code regarding the right to present arguments:
"The relevant rights may be exercised until 2 PM on the second working day after the match ends. By then, all submitted statements or appeal materials must be delivered to the secretariat of the disciplinary body. If the match is not held on a weekend, the aforementioned deadline will be shortened by 24 hours, meaning until 2 PM on the next working day after the match ends."
Because Monday was Spain's National Day holiday, the deadline for submitting arguments was extended to Wednesday, as Wednesday became the second working day. Note that Sunday is also not considered a working day.
This meant that all relevant parties, including Real Madrid and Vinicius, could submit their defense materials by 2 PM on Wednesday.
The three members of the Disciplinary Committee convened on Wednesday immediately after this deadline expired to review the materials submitted by all parties and promptly announced the disciplinary decision.
The reason for this timing was that if the Disciplinary Committee had not announced the penalty on Wednesday, clubs might not have had enough time to appeal to the Appeals Committee and receive a ruling before the next round of matches, which could have allowed sanctioned players to participate.
According to procedure, all Spanish clubs must submit their appeals to the Appeals Committee by 3 PM on Thursday. Only then can they hope to know the outcome by 12 PM on Friday at the latest.
Therefore, if the Disciplinary Committee had not announced the penalty on Wednesday, Real Madrid would not have had sufficient time to respond.
Additionally, there is a second appeal window from 2 PM to 7 PM on Thursday. In this scenario, the relevant ruling must be announced by 2 PM on Friday at the latest.
If the Spanish Football Federation's Disciplinary Committee had waited until Thursday to announce the penalty, Real Madrid would have had very limited time to prepare and submit their appeal materials.
If the club submitted its appeal after 8 PM on Thursday, the Appeals Committee would not rule on Vinicius's case before the next round of matches.
Conversely, announcing the disciplinary decision on Wednesday evening not only leaves time for clubs to appeal to the Appeals Committee but also gives them the opportunity to seek further recourse from the final instance: the Administrative Court of Sport (TAD), which is part of the Spanish High Council for Sport (CSD).
If a club wishes to apply for interim protective measures, such as Real Madrid's request for a stay of execution for Vinicius's penalty, the application must also be submitted by 12 PM on Friday.
After this deadline, the Administrative Court of Sport will not make a decision on the relevant application before the next round of matches.
Therefore, these legal procedures and time constraints explain why the Disciplinary Committee chose to announce Vinicius's suspension on Wednesday afternoon rather than earlier or postpone it until Thursday.
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