Finger poking incident between Gonzalo Jara and Edinson Cavani (Photo : Reuters)
Chile center back Gonzalo Jara was banned for the remainder of the 2015 Copa America tournament after he was found guilty of inserting his right middle finger inside the buttocks hole of Uruguayan striker Edinson Cavani, as per The Independent.
The mischievous gesture resulted to Chile's 1-0 win over La Celeste on Wednesday, which consequently propelled La Roja to semifinals against Peru.
Television pictures clearly showed Jara meddling with Cavani's private part, resulting in a light slap to the face from the latter. Despite the obvious minimal contact, the Mainz 05 defender then flopped to the ground as if he was badly hurt, prompting gullible Brazilian referee Sandro Ricci to book a second yellow on Cavani that eventually led to a red send off.
This made Óscar Tabárez's team endure the match with one-man down. Ten minutes later, defender Mauricio Isla pocketed a short-handed goal to hurl the host team to the semis for the first time in over one and a half decades.
Hours later, Jara's finger prodding photo was all over newspapers and social media, substantiating Cavani's defense on the below-the-belt tactic.
Uruguay team captain Diego Godin had some words regarding the unfortunate incident. He said that "there are images that are far more graphic than 1,000 words of mine," stressing that one could easily see that "he sticks his finger up him."
"I hope that CONMEBOL takes action," Godin told Reuters. "I'm going to hold my tongue. It's a delicate situation."
And now, the quick penalty is the suspension for the rest of this summer's competitions. Hopefully, Jara learns his lesson of keeping his finger to himself.
