Brazil want Silva ban scrapped, Zuniga inquiry

The Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) on Sunday called on FIFA to rescind a yellow card ban set to keep skipper Thiago Silva out of Tuesday’s World Cup semi-final against Germany.

The organization said it was urging FIFA’s disciplinary commission “to annul the yellow card unjustly shown” to Silva in their quarter-final win over Colombia.

The CBF also demanded football’s governing body investigate the “violent challenge” of Colombia’s Juan Camilo Zuniga, whose knee-in-the-back tackle on Neymar saw Brazil’s starlet stretched off with a fractured vertebrae.

Saying he never intended to hurt his rival, Zuniga apologised to Neymar for his challenge, which Brazilian media on Sunday complained was too rough even for an MMA wrestling encounter.