Rio de Janeiro: Neymar will miss Brazil’s first two 2018 World Cup qualifiers after terms of his international ban were upheld by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). “CONMEBOL, after consulting FIFA, informed its members that bans which were still not served should be served during the next official competition organised by FIFA, i.e., Brazil’s qualifying matches for the 2018 FIFA World Cup,” CAS said in a statement on Friday, Xinhua reported.
The Barcelona forward was suspended for four matches after his red card in Brazil’s 1-0 loss to Colombia at the Copa America in June. Having already served two matches of the ban, the 23-year-old will miss Brazil’s away clash against Chile on Thursday and home match against Venezuela five days later. Brazil’s football confederation had argued the ban should only apply to Copa America fixtures, which fall under the jurisdiction of South American governing body CONMEBOL, not world entity FIFA.
