Brazil’s defender and captain Thiago Silva (centre) receives a yellow card from Spanish referee Carlos Velasco Carballo during the quarter-finals against Colombia on Friday. (AFP)
The Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) yesterday called on FIFA to rescind a yellow card ban set to keep skipper Thiago Silva out of tomorrow’s World Cup semi-final against Germany.
The organisation said it was urging FIFA’s disciplinary commission “to annul the yellow card unjustly shown” to Silva in their quarter-final win over Colombia.
Thiago picked up the caution against Colombia in the quarterfinal, imposed after he blocked goalkeeper David Ospina taking a kick, and as it was his second of the tournament he was automatically suspended.
The Brazilian federation (CBF) has lodged an appeal and FIFA head of media Delia Fischer said: “I can confirm we have received an appeal from the CBF and this is being analysed.” The CBF’s chances of success appear limited - appeals against yellow cards are not usually permitted, only red cards. Real Madrid appealed against midfielder Xabi Alonso being suspended for the Champions League final after he picked up a third booking in the semi-final, but UEFA ruled that appeal was inadmissible.
Should FIFA overturn the yellow card it would be hugely controversial and would allow other teams to claim that the governing body is favouring the hosts.
All existing yellow cards are now wiped from the slate for the players from this stage of the tournament, however, meaning anyone who is booked in a semifinal will not risk suspension for the final unless they are sent off.
The CBF also demanded football’s governing body investigate the “violent challenge” of Colombia’s Juan Camilo Zuniga, whose knee-in-the-back tackle on Neymar saw Brazil’s starlet stretched off with a fractured vertebrae.
The aerial challenge ended Neymar’s participation in the tournament, dealing a blow to the hosts’ chances of seeing off the Germans, while Silva’s booking left him suspended and Brazil shorn of a second key player. Saying he never intended to hurt his rival, Zuniga apologised to Neymar for his challenge, which Brazilian media yesterday complained was too rough even for an MMA wrestling encounter. FIFA has confirmed it is studying the Zuniga tackle.