What We're Reading
Brazil's Last-Ditch Efforts for Silva, Neymar Returns
- AFP, Monday, July 7, 2014 11:37 AM
Brazil has launched an appeal against the yellow card captain Thiago Silva received during its 2-1 World Cup quarterfinal win against Colombia on Friday, which rules him out of Tuesday’s semifinal clash with Germany, while the host country is also reportedly exploring the remote possibility of a World Cup final return for Neymar, who broke a vertebra during the same game.
According to the AFP, Silva is unlikely to have his suspension for yellow card accumulation lifted as FIFA’s disciplinary code states that yellow cards can be canceled only in “exceptional circumstances.” Nevertheless, FIFA acknowledged that it had received Brazil’s appeal and is currently analyzing the evidence handed forth by the Brazilian soccer federation (CBF) that its captain was unjustly booked against Colombia.
Meanwhile, Brazilian daily Globo said that Neymar, who suffered a fracture to his third lumbar vertebra during the quarterfinal and was subsequently ruled out of the rest of the World Cup, is currently looking into the use of injections or possibly painkillers that could enable him to return for the World Cup final, should Brazil make it that far. Even so, the paper claimed: "There is no guarantee of success, the chances are small.”
Separately, the CBF also demanded that FIFA launch an investigation into the “ “violent challenge” of Colombia’s Juan Zuniga on Neymar during the quarterfinal.
