Rio de Janeiro, Oct 2 (EFE).– The Lausanne, Switzerland-based Court of Arbitration for Sport, or CAS, on Friday rejected Brazil’s appeal of a suspension imposed on Neymar and confirmed the player will have to miss his country’s first two 2018 World Cup qualifiers versus Chile and Venezuela.

Neymar was suspended for four games after a Copa America match against Colombia last year, when he appeared to head-butt an opposing player and insulted the referee after the end of the game, according to the arbitration proceedings.

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 Russia.

The Brazilian Football Confederation said it had asked CAS to allow Neymar to serve out the rest of his suspension at the 2019 Copa America instead, arguing that the rules of that tournament specify that the punishment cannot be applied to other events.

Dunga, head coach of Brazil’s national team, was waiting on CAS’ decision to see if he could call up Neymar, his best player, for the matches against Chile and Venezuela.

Brazil will play Chile next Thursday at the national stadium in Santiago and then host Venezuela on Oct. 13 at the Castelao stadium in Fortaleza.

For those two games, Dunga has called up strikers Hulk, Douglas Costa, Ricardo Oliveira and Willian, as well as attacking midfielders Philippe Coutinho and Oscar. EFE