We've all been guilty of it. Your team is stuck on a Sunday morning and in an attempt to make up the numbers, you enlist the help of a friend so your team won't have to forfeit their game.
Akin to a foul throw, it's hardly the worst crime in football. Still you wouldn't expect it from one of the world's largest football clubs.
During last night's Copa del Rey tie against Cadiz, Rafa Benitez's Real Madrid showed they have a lot in common with every Junior B GAA side and Sunday League team, and it could cost them.
Rafa Benítez's side face expulsion from the competition after allegedly fielding an ineligible player in last night's fourth round win over Cadiz.
Denis Cheryshev opened the scoring after just three minutes to help the Spanish giants to a 3-1 win over the Segunda Division B side, but the Russia international was supposed to be serving a one-match ban.
Having picked up three yellow cards in the same competition last season on loan with Villarreal, this was his first opportunity to serve the suspension.
“We had no idea that Cheryshev was ineligible to play,” Benítez said after the game. “No one informed us of this situation. As soon as we were aware we took him off.”
This may have been the case, but Rafa could have taken hints from the crowd who spent the first half singing “Benítez, look at your Twitter,” and “Cheryshev can’t play”.
Clearly disgruntled by the flagrant breaking of the rules, Cadiz announced via their Twitter page that: “The Board of Directors of Cadiz-CF will meet at the end of the match.”
The RFEF communique from March 6 confirming that Denis Cheryshev (Villarreal) has a 1 match #CopaDelRey sanction pic.twitter.com/zQrLVAIUB2
— AS USA (@English_AS) December 2, 2015
This is nothing new to Benítez. His Valencia side were disqualified from the same competition back in 2001 after playing too many non-EU players during a tie against Novelda.
With things going from bad to worse for Los Blancos this season, Gerard Pique was rofl'ing back in Barcelona.
😂😂😂😭😭😭😂😂😂
— Gerard Piqué (@3gerardpique) December 2, 2015
You wouldn't need a code breaker to decipher the former Manchester United player's "cryptic" tweet.
