CONMEBOL made an unexpected decision by increasing his one match ban to four games. The Brazilian player will now miss the rest of the tournament for his accumulation of yellow cards and direct red for incidents involving the player after the game against Colombia. Another strange decision from the tournament organizers after they reduced his initial two match ban by one game. The sanction seems harsh on the player and will put pressure on Dunga’s team who have yet to impress at this Copa America. Colombia’s, Carlos Bacca, who was also involved in the post match incident will serve out a two match ban.
Neymar was sanctioned one game for an accumulation of yellow cards and with another three for this straight red cards. He picked up his first yellow after the ball touched his arm just before half-time. Hes red was for kicking the ball at Armero as the game ended and then for his fracas with Murillo and Bacca, which also saw the Sevilla forward being shown a straight red too. We saw during the 2014 World Cup how the Brazilian team struggled when Neymar was absent and Dunga will now need to look for solutions without their talisman.
The CBF (Brazilian Football Federation) now have 24 hours to appeal against this harsh sanction and will hope that with a sanction reduction their key player may get to play in the final should Dunga’s side make it through. The whole of Brazil are in arms over this rigorous sanction which has fallen upon the Barça player