Spanish Football Federation rejects Cristiano Ronaldo's appeal against five-game ban

Courtesy: Reuters

New Delhi: Real Madrid superstar Crisitiano Ronaldo's appeal against his five-match ban has been rejected by the Spanish football federation's (RFEF) appeals committee on Wednesday.

The latest verdict means that the Portuguese will miss the return-leg of Spanish Super Cup against their bitter rivals Barcelona later tonight. In the first leg, Ronaldo came as a substitute to give Madrid the lead after a Lionel Messi penalty leveled the score following Gerard Pique own goal.

Marco Asensio scored a stoppage time goal to give Zinedine Zidane's side a 3-1 win Camp Nou. It came after Ronaldo was shown a second yellow card in the 82nd minute of the game.

The send off was controversial enough when referee Ricardo de Burgos Bengoetxea adjudged he had dived trying to win a penalty eight minutes from time. But, after being shown the 10th red card of his career, Ronaldo then lightly pushed the referee.

A red card automatically results in a one-match ban, but on Monday, the RFEF issued Ronaldo with an extra four-match suspension for the push to the referee.

Besides tonight match, Ronaldo will also be absent when Madrid begin their defence of La Liga on Sunday at Deportivo la Coruna as well as home games against Valencia and Levante and a trip to Real Sociedad.

Zidane expressed his anger at what he believes is an excessive punishment.

"When you look at everything that happened, to think Cristiano won't play five games with us... It is infuriating," Zidane said on Tuesday.

The former Manchester United player, though, will be free to play when Madrid begin their Champions League campaign on September 12 or 13. They are the two-time defending champions.