Real Madrid’s Arbeloa asks to ‘turn the page’ after fight between Valverde and Tchouaméni

BARCELONA: Real Madrid coach Álvaro Arbeloa has defended players Federico Valverde and Aurélien Tchouaméni, saying their apologies for having scuffled were enough to settle the incident that led the club to fine both of them a whopping 500,000 euros ($590,000).
“My players recognized their mistake, expressed their remorse and asked for forgiveness,” Arbeloa told reporters in Madrid on Saturday in his first public appearance since the fight.
“That is enough for me,” he said. “What I am not going to do is burn them on a pyre in a town square, because they don’t deserve that.

It is time to turn the page.”
The tussle by the two midfielders when Madrid practiced on Thursday ended with Valverde at the hospital to treat a head wound. Valverde said he had hit his head on a table, calling the incident “a meaningless fight.”
Madrid said both players apologized to one another the next day when they met with club officials investigating the incident.

They also apologized to their teammates, coaching staff and fans.
The 15-time European champion, however, found the spat a serious enough breach of team discipline to slap the players with fines that bite even the bank account of a top soccer player.
Arbeloa said he was satisfied with how the club had handled the situation, while also adding that he had seen worse behavior in his playing career as a defender, which included Madrid, Liverpool, West Ham and Spain’s national team.
“I had a teammate that hit another with a golf club,” he said, without giving any more detail. “Situations like this have always happened, but I am not justifying them.”
During Arbeloa’s playing days at Liverpool, teammates Craig Bellamy and John Arne Riise were involved in an incident in which Bellamy hit Riise