{"id":30805,"date":"2026-04-04T13:59:57","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T11:59:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=30805"},"modified":"2026-04-04T15:07:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T13:07:24","slug":"fernandezs-agent-criticises-chelseas-unfair-ban","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/fernandezs-agent-criticises-chelseas-unfair-ban\/","title":{"rendered":"Fernandez\u2019s agent criticises Chelsea\u2019s \u2018unfair\u2019 ban"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Enzo Fernandez\u2019s agent Javier Pastore has criticised Chelsea\u2019s decision to ban the midfielder for two games after recent public comments about his future, saying the Argentina international does not understand the punishment.<\/p>\n<p>Fernandez will miss Saturdays FA Cup quarter-final against Port Vale and next Sunday\u2019s Premier League match at Manchester City.<\/p>\n<p>Last week the World Cup winner said he would \u201clook at his options after the World Cup\u201d and expressed a desire to live in Spain.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe punishment is completely unfair,\u201d Pastore told the Athletic newspaper.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s no real reason or justification for why he has been banned. Enzo didn\u2019t understand the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The 25-year-old, who is under contract until 2032 and has captained Chelsea in the absence of injured Reece James, has been linked with Real Madrid, although he denied talks with the Spanish club.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen the coach told him, he accepted it because he\u2019s a highly professional guy who\u2019s always fully committed, wherever he is, and respects decisions,\u201d Pastore said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut we don\u2019t understand the punishment because he doesn\u2019t mention any club or say he wants to leave Chelsea, far from it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u2014Reuters\u2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":14794,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-30805","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"\u201cThe punishment is completely unfair,\u201d Pastore told the Athletic newspaper.","published_date":"","news_description":"\u201cThe punishment is completely unfair,\u201d Pastore told the Athletic newspaper.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30805\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30806,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30805\/revisions\/30806"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=30805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}