TWO Real Madrid players involved in a brutal dressing room row that threatened to overshadow the end of the domestic football season in Spain have been ordered to cough up a whopping half a million euros each in fines.
Midfielders Aurelien Tchouameni, 26, and Federico Valverde, 27, attended an internal disciplinary meeting with club officials on Friday after clashing the previous day.
“During the appearance, the players expressed their deep regret for what happened and apologised to each other,” the club said in a statement.
“They have also apologised to the club, their team-mates, the coaching staff and the fans, and both have made themselves available to Real Madrid to accept whatever sanction the club deems appropriate.”
Valverde, from Uruguay, was taken to hospital on Thursday with a head injury, which he said was caused when he ‘accidentally hit a table’ during an argument with his French teammate.
Doctors later diagnosed him with cranioencephalic trauma, a type of concussion that will force him to miss this evening’s crunch El Clasico clash against arch rivals Barcelona.
Real currently sit 11 points behind Barcelona in the league and will need to win on Sunday evening to prevent their rivals from securing a second consecutive La Liga title.
Tchouameni apologised for his role in the incident on social media, saying that such incidents ‘can happen in any dressing room’, but they are ‘not worthy of Real Madrid’ because the club is the ‘most talked-about’ in the world.
“We remain a family, with disagreements at times, but we must always put our objectives above everything else,” he said.
“I have apologised to the group and I also want to extend my apologies to all Madridistas.
“Now it is time to move forward, and all our focus is on El Clasico and on the season ahead, to bring the club back to the top, where it belongs.”
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