Former Manchester United striker Edinson Cavani has called for referee Daniel Siebert to be "put in jail" after a controversial end to Uruguay's World Cup campaign.
Cavani, who turns 36 in February, was part of the team which beat Ghana in their final group game in Qatar. The 2-0 victory wasn't enough to see Diego Alonso's team through, though, with a late winner for South Korea against Portugal seeing the Asian nation progress on goals scored.
With such fine margins, a number of decisions from the Ghana game took centre-stage. These include Siebert's decision not to award a penalty to Uruguay for what they felt was a foul by Daniel Amartey, and Cavani was one of a number of players to chase referee Siebert down the tunnel after the final whistle blew.
Cavani himself had seen a separate penalty appeal turned down, and he was seen punching a VAR monitor after his team's elimination. The Valencia frontman was shown a yellow card by the referee following his post-match protests, as was team-mate Jose Maria Gimenez, and Gimenez appeared to elbow a FIFA official amid the protests.
FIFA issued a report into the scenes several days after the match, with suggestions at the time that Gimenez could be banned for 15 games or more. Cavani has not let the matter slide, meanwhile, with his latest comments to El Larguero (via Marca ) explaining his continued frustration.
"They have to put him in jail," the veteran said. "But if they penalise me for hitting the VAR, the referee, for having taken us out of the World Cup, they have to put him in jail," he said, arguing Siebert had made "errors" despite the presence of VAR and cameras covering the game.
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"It worries me," Cavani said when asked about the possibility of facing sanctions following the Ghana game. "Yes, of course it worries me, because it would be out of competition with my teammates, my club and my team. It worries me."
"But these are things that happen," he continued. "But they have to get a little on the footballer's side, not only the referee and others, on the footballer's side to see what has happened, why it has happened and why things have happened the way they have.
"It's okay that we have to maintain a behaviour and so on, but we are human beings and when sometimes the things that happen [on the pitch] are lived with passion and you work so hard to get there and compete and this and the other... It may also be that the reaction of a footballer inside can be, not justified, but a little more forgiven."
Cavani was speaking ahead of the Spanish Super Cup, which is being held in Saudi Arabia. Last season's Copa del Rey runners-up Valencia are due to face reigning league champions Real Madrid in the semi-finals of the competition, with Real Betis or Barcelona awaiting in the final.
