Cristiano Ronaldo has criticised the “exaggerated” punishment he received after his Super Cup dismissal, describing the decision to ban him for five games as “persecution”.

Ronaldo received his marching orders in Real Madrid’s 3-1 Super Cup victory over Barcelona on Monday following two bookable offences. The 32-year-old subsequently received a one-game suspension for the initial red card and a further four games for appearing to shove referee Ricardo de Burgos Bengoetxea after being sent off.

In his post-match report, the referee described the incident by stating that the player “pushed me lightly as a sign of his disapproval”, with the Royal Spanish Football Federation then having little choice but to discipline the Portuguese superstar.

Real initially appealed against Ronaldo’s second yellow card on the basis of a dubious call from de Burgos Bengoetxea, who booked Ronaldo for diving after he seemed to go down honestly under considerable pressure from Samuel Umtiti. However, the RFEF appeals panel subsequently upheld their decision and the length of his suspension.

As is evident in subsequent social media postings, Ronaldo clearly felt aggrieved by the length of his suspension, stating: “It’s impossible to be unaffected by this situation; five games! It seems exaggerated and ridiculous; this is called persecution!”