La Liga side Cadiz demand final NINE minutes of last game are replayed, threaten legal action

Cadiz have demanded the final NINE minutes of their La Liga fixture with Elche be replayed and have threatened legal action.

On Monday evening, Cadiz, currently 18th in the Spanish top flight, drew 1-1 with bottom club Elche at the Estadio Nuevo Mirandilla.

The hosts went 1-0 up early on through Brian Ocampo and looked they were going to claim a much-needed win in their fight against relegation.

However, Elche equalised in the 81st minute through former Spartak Moscow forward Ezequiel Ponce.

But the leveller was shrouded in controversy as the officials and VAR failed to spot a clear offside in the build-up to the strike.

Ponce was stood behind the entire Cadiz backline in an offside position but dropped back in to pop the ball off.

The ball then went wide and was whipped in for Ponce to head home. Despite it being its whole purpose in the game, VAR did not correct the clear and obvious error as the goal stood and the game ended all square.

But Cadiz, who are one point away from safety after 17 games, are furious and have submitted a formal complaint.

The club want the clash to be resumed from the minute the offside goal was scored and will press forward with legal action if the loss of the two points ends up negatively impacting their final league position in La Liga.

A statement on the official club website: "Today, January 17, 2023, the legal services of CÁDIZ CF SAD have submitted to the competent federative authorities, a brief challenging the meeting held before ELCHE, C.F., S.A.D, by virtue of which the annulment is requested of the well-deserved match and its resumption from minute 81 of it, at which time the refereeing team validated the goal scored by the ELCHE, C.F., S.A.D. D. Ezequiel Ponce, despite being preceded by a resounding and flagrant offside, not susceptible to interpretation, as shown by the images of the match."

It continued: "Quite the contrary, if necessary at the end of the season, depending on the sporting and economic damages that may be inferred from the final classification of CÁDIZ, C.F., S.A.D. In the First Division category, this Entity will evaluate the exercise of as many legal actions that assist it in Law, including the action of patrimonial responsibility against the persons, physical or legal, that in the last instance must respond for the damages and losses caused to CÁDIZ , C.F., S.A.D."

A game in La Liga resuming at such a late stage wouldn't exactly be unprecedented as in January 2005, Real Madrid played a six-minute game at the Santiago Bernabeu.

A fixture with Real Sociedad was abandoned in the 87th minute when the stadium had to be evacuated due to a bomb scare.

It proved to be a hoax but the two teams returned to the pitch weeks later and Zinedine Zidane scored a winner from the spot.

Cadiz's efforts could prove unsuccessful, however, as the 'Laws of the Game' say that a match cannot be invalidated due to a wrong decision from VAR.