Colombia’s Juan Zuniga escapes punishment for Neymar tackle; Silva suspension stays
Colombian defender Juan Zuniga has escaped punishment for his tackle on Brazilian Neymar which left him with a fractured vertebra subsequently ending his 2014 World Cup campaign.
The 28-year old who plays for Napoli in the Serie A kneed Neymar from behind during Colombia’s quarter-final game against hosts Brazil which they lost 2-1.
FIFA’s disciplinary committee ruled that no retrospective action can be taken against the Colombian as the incident did not escape the attention of the on-field referee.
The chief governing body released a statement which read: "After an analysis of the matter and the extensive submission and documentation received from the CBF (Brazilian Football Confederation), the chairman came to the conclusion that the FIFA disciplinary committee cannot consider this matter in light of the conditions outlined in the FIFA Disciplinary Code (FDC) for the disciplinary committee to be able to intervene in such a situation."
"In particular, in this specific case, no retrospective action can be taken by the FIFA disciplinary committee, since the incident involving the Colombian player Juan Camilo Zuniga Mosquera did not escape the match officials."
FIFA also announced that the yellow card booking on Brazil captain Thiago Silva will remain and said there is no law in the game which allows reviewing yellow cards.
The PSG player resultantly will miss the 2014 World Cup semi-final clash against Germany on Tuesday. Silva was booked for blocking keeper David Ospina goal kick in the same match; it was his second yellow card in the tournament.