The appeals committee of the Spanish Football Federation upheld the four-match suspension for Brazilian Vinicius Junior today, Friday, which was imposed by the disciplinary committee following his red card in the match against Villarreal, after rejecting the appeal submitted by Real Madrid, which requested either the cancellation or at least a reduction of the penalty.
According to the Spanish newspaper "AS," Vinicius will thus miss the upcoming La Liga matches against Sevilla, Barcelona, Racing Santander, and Valencia, and will not return to participate in the competition until after the international break, facing Celta Vigo on November 21 and 22.
The royal club intends to escalate the issue to the sports administrative court.
Real Madrid submitted several requests in the appeal documents to the appeals committee, but all were rejected.
The royal club requested the cancellation of the two-match suspension due to the red card or the application of Article 121.1 of the disciplinary law instead of Article 130.2, considering that the former had been applied in previous cases related to hair pulling, which would have reduced the red card penalty to just one match.
On the other hand, Real requested the cancellation of the two-match suspension due to Vinicius's protests against referee Diaz de Mera, asserting that there was no justification for applying Article 127 of the disciplinary law, or applying Article 118.1 instead, which is limited to a warning.
The appeals committee rejected all the arguments presented by the royal club.
Regarding the red card, the disciplinary body of the Spanish Football Federation clarified that there was no clear material error in the referee's decision.
It also upheld the two-match suspension, considering the application of Article 130.2 to be correct since the incident did not occur during actual competition for the ball.
The appeals committee noted, regarding the disciplinary committee's decision on the application of this article, that "there is no shortcoming in the reasons that warrants the cancellation of the contested decision."
Accordingly, the two-match suspension remains the minimum stipulated in this article.