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European judo body criticises Ramos over challenge

The Champions League final may have been over, but Sergio Ramos' game-ending challenge on Mohamed Salah still gets people talking.

One of Ramos' latest critics is the European Judo Union (EJU), which posted a photo of the challenge on its Twitter account.

Both players had locked arms as the Real Madrid defender appeared to drag the Liverpool forward down to the turf , causing the latter to suffer a shoulder injury. Salah had to be substituted as Real went on to win 3-1.

The EJU tweeted: "Waki-gatame is a dangerous technique. That's why it is not allowed in Judo to use for transition to ne-waza. What do you think about this foul yesterday evening in the #UCLFinal between #RMALIV?"

Waki-gatame means arm lock in Japanese.

The picture of the post has a caption that read: "Forbidden arm-lock technique in judo but in football good enough to win Champions League." The original tweet garnered over 22,000 likes as of last night.

Fans calling for Ramos to be punished have also set up an online petition, which has over 300,000 signatures.

An Egyptian lawyer has also launched a 1 billion-euro (S$1.6b) lawsuit against the Real captain.

Meanwhile, Salah has arrived in Spain for treatment. Egypt's football federation said his entourage had chosen Spain for a rehabilitation programme. He was accompanied by Liverpool's medical staff, having started his recovery programme on Sunday.

When Salah arrived at the airport, a reporter asked him in English about Ramos' challenge and whether he is ready for the World Cup, but got no answer, reported the Daily Mail.

Egypt open their Group A campaign against Uruguay on June 15, before facing hosts Russia and Saudi Arabia.

Football