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What’s the story?
Despite the recent appeal submitted by Ligue 1 champions Paris Saint-Germain, UEFA has upheld Neymar’s three-match ban in European football. This ban is with regards to the Brazilian international's insults towards match officials on their decision to award a penalty in the Champions League Round of 16 game against Manchester United.
In case you didn’t know...
The 27-year-old PSG forward had described the decision as "a disgrace" when officials decided to award Manchester United a decisive 94th-minute penalty. Marcus Rashford converted the chance and sent his side through to the next round.
The resultant goal knocked out the Ligue 1 club out of the Champions League after losing on away goals.
During the game, Neymar was injured and had missed both legs of the tie against the Premier League giants. Despite that, he could not accept the result of the match and his response got him in trouble. After the match, he added that the penalty "doesn't exist".
The heart of the matter
UEFA wasn’t pleased by the comments that Neymar had made about the refereeing decisions back then and handed Neymar a three-game ban. Following that, PSG decided to lodge an appeal against the decision.
According to BBC, UEFA will not be changing their minds and the ban will stay. With this, Neymar is set to miss the first three matches of the upcoming Champions League campaign. This also means that out of the six Champions League group stage matches, Neymar would be missing half of them.
What's next?
This serves as a warning for Neymar, who had insulted the referees, not to repeat his actions in the future. The Brazilian has been less than impressive this season and his future at the Paris club is uncertain. His latest injury has also caused him to miss the Copa America competition in Brazil.
