Neymar has had his European Cup punishment reduced by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) but the Brazilian will still not be in action when Paris St Germain host Real Madrid in a clash of the titans on Wednesday night.
The former Barcelona forward will now serve two and not three-match ban for insulting match officials on Twitter after a controversial handball call in the UEFA Champions League early this year.
The 27-year-old had labelled a refereeing decision against Manchester United in the Champions League “a disgrace”, a situation which UEFA investigated and found the player guilty of abuse on social media back in March. Neymar was subsequently slapped with a three match ban that was to commence from match day 1 of this new season.
PSG appealed to UEFA immediately but their case was dismissed, after which the Ligue 1 champions appealed to CAS, who reduced the ban on Tuesday.
Manchester United were awarded a contentious penalty for handball against Presnel Kimpembe leading to a controversial 3-1 home defeat in the Champions League last 16 following which the Brazil international used profane language towards the match officials.
Neymar, who was injured for the match, wrote on social media: “This is a disgrace, they put four people that know nothing about football in charge of looking at the replay for VAR.”
Neymar will now be available for PSG’s third group game against Club Brugge on October 22 but he will still miss PSG’s opening Champions League games against Real Madrid on Wednesday and Galatasaray in two weeks’ time.
