The Brazilian Football Confederation appealed against Neymar’s punishment last month – but the Court of Arbitration for Sport has dismissed it and confirmed he must sit out the qualifiers, on October 8 and 13 respectively.
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The CAS did not give a reason for its decision, saying it would release that at a later time.
Neymar, banned for four matches at the Copa America in Chile in June by the South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL), will miss the matches away to Chile next Thursday and at home to Venezuela five days later. A Brazilian court recently froze assets of Neymar, his family and related businesses valued at $48-million for allegedly evading $16m in tax between 2011 and 2013.
Brazil will be without captain Neymar when they start their 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign.
The striker already missed Brazil’s final two Copa America matches (Brazil was eliminated in the quarterfinals by Paraguay) and will not be able to compete in his country’s two initial qualifying matches for the 2018 World Cup in Russian Federation.
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The Barcelona star was handed the lengthy suspension by CONMEBOL after he was sent off in Brazil’s Copa America group match against Colombia in June, per Liam Prenderville in the Mirror.
