Official decision: the Spanish federation responds to Real Madrid's appeal over Vinicius's punishment

Will he be fit for the Clasico?

The appeals committee of the Spanish Football Federation has upheld the four-match ban imposed on Brazilian Vinicius Junior. The disciplinary committee handed it down after his sending-off against Villarreal, and Real Madrid's appeal, which sought the punishment annulled or at least reduced, has been thrown out.

According to the Spanish newspaper AS, Vinicius will now sit out La Liga meetings with Sevilla, Barcelona, Racing Santander and Valencia. He only returns in the competition after the international break, against Celta Vigo on 21 and 22 November.

Real Madrid intend to take the case to the Administrative Court for Sport.

Several requests went into the appeal submission filed with the appeals committee. Every one of them was rejected.

Among them, the club wanted the two-match ban for the sending-off annulled, or Article 121.1 of the disciplinary code applied instead of Article 130.2, on the grounds that the former had been used in previous hair-pulling cases as a matter of disciplinary precedent. That would have cut the punishment for the sending-off to a single match.

Madrid also asked for the annulment of the two-match ban handed down for Vinicius's protests towards the referee Diaz de Mera, arguing that nothing justified applying Article 127 of the disciplinary code, or that Article 118.1 should be applied instead, an article whose punishment goes no further than a warning.

Every argument the club put forward was dismissed.

On the sending-off, the disciplinary body of the Spanish Football Federation explained that the referee had made no clear material error.

The two-match ban stood as well, with the committee deciding Article 130.2 had been applied correctly because the incident did not happen during an actual challenge for the ball.

Turning to the disciplinary committee's reasoning on that article, the appeals committee said "there is no deficiency in the reasoning that would warrant the annulment of the contested decision".

So the two-match ban remains the minimum punishment stipulated in that article.