World Cup report

FIFA takes no action on injury

Brazil's Neymar is fouled by Colombia's Juan Zuniga during the World Cup quarterfinal soccer match between Brazil and Colombia at the Arena Castelao in Fortaleza, Brazil, Friday, July 4, 2014. Brazil's team doctor says Neymar will miss the rest of the World Cup after breaking a vertebrae during the team's quarterfinal win over Colombia. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Brazil's Neymar is fouled by Colombia's Juan Zuniga during the World Cup quarterfinal soccer match between Brazil and Colombia at the Arena Castelao in Fortaleza, Brazil, Friday, July 4, 2014. Brazil's team doctor says Neymar will miss the rest of the World Cup after breaking a vertebrae during the team's quarterfinal win over Colombia. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

RIO DE JANEIRO -- FIFA will not take action against the Colombia player who injured Neymar and ended the Brazil star's World Cup.

FIFA said its disciplinary panel "cannot consider this matter" under the rules because the match referee saw the challenge by Camilo Zuniga and judged it at the time.

"In this specific case, no retrospective action can be taken," FIFA said in a statement on Monday, because the incident "did not escape the match officials' attention."

In a separate decision, the panel also refused to consider a Confederation of Brazilian Football appeal against captain Thiago Silva's yellow card in the 2-1 quarterfinal victory over Colombia on Friday in Fortaleza.

Thiago Silva's second caution of the tournament triggered a one-match ban which he will serve in the semifinals. Brazil will therefore be without its best player and its captain against Germany today in Belo Horizonte.

Neymar will be sidelined for about 45 days after sustaining a fractured third vertebra.

The panel studied video of Zuniga's 86th-minute challenge, where he kneed Neymar in the back when jumping into him at speed. Zuniga apologized on Saturday.

Spanish referee Carlos Velasco Carballo did not show Zuniga a yellow card, and FIFA's disciplinary panel considered the incident judged on the spot.

The seriousness of an injury could not be weighed in a disciplinary decision, nor was mistaken identity a factor in the case, FIFA added.

"First and foremost, the chairman of the FIFA Disciplinary Committee [Claudio Sulser] wishes to state that he deeply regrets the incident and the serious consequences on Neymar's health," the statement said.

The Luis Suarez biting case earlier in the World Cup raised expectations that Sulser's panel would also punish Zuniga.

However, Suarez's bite of Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini's shoulder was missed by match officials. That allowed Sulser to use video evidence to ban the Uruguay forward for nine international matches and four months.

The Mexican referee in that case, Marco Rodriguez, will handle the Brazil-Germany semifinal in his first match duty since Uruguay beat Italy 1-0 on June 24.

Thiago Silva was booked against Colombia for impeding goalkeeper David Ospina who tried to kick the ball downfield.

The FIFA disciplinary code states that cautions can be canceled only in "exceptional circumstances."

The panel "cannot consider the matter given the fact that there is no legal basis entitling it to grant such request," FIFA said.

All samples clean

FIFA said all samples have tested clean in its World Cup anti-doping program, though no unannounced controls have been made in Brazil.

FIFA's chief medical officer Jiri Dvorak said analysis of all pre-competition and post-match samples was completed through the first quarterfinal match last Friday.

All 736 players have given blood samples for their individual biological passport. Two players from each team are randomly picked to give samples after each match.

Dvorak says no doping controls were taken on days between matches.

He says all samples "arrived in good condition" at the World Anti-Doping Agency-accredited laboratory in Lausanne, Switzerland, where samples are tested. WADA revoked the Rio de Janeiro lab's credentials last year.

No player has tested positive at a World Cup since Argentina great Diego Maradona in 1994.

Executive arrested

A senior executive with the official World Cup corporate hospitality provider was arrested Monday in the plush beachside hotel where FIFA President Sepp Blatter is staying, as part of a Brazilian police investigation into illegal ticket sales.

Ray Whelan, a director of MATCH Services, was arrested at the Copacabana Palace in Rio de Janeiro, the hotel used by senior FIFA officials during the World Cup.

Whelan was detained as part of a larger police investigation dubbed "Operation Jules Rimet." He was characterized by police investigator Fabio Barucke as being the "facilitator" who allowed a large ring of scalpers to have access to tickets.

In an emailed statement, police said Whelan was heard on wiretapped phone calls negotiating ticket prices with Algerian national Mohamadou Lamine Fofana, who they accuse of being the ringleader of the scalpers.

Whelan was arrested inside his luxury suite Monday afternoon, where police said they confiscated 82 tickets for upcoming matches, along with Whelan's computer, cellphone and other unspecified documents.

Under Brazilian law, Whelan, 64, may only be charged by prosecutors after they receive the complete police investigation, which officers have 30 days to complete. Investigators said Whelan was still being questioned inside a precinct Monday evening -- and that he would spend the night in jail.

A spokesman for MATCH Hospitality, the subsidiary in the MATCH group of companies implicated in the investigation, didn't immediately reply to requests for comment.

Re-selling World Cup tickets for profit is illegal in Brazil and against FIFA rules. Police arrested 11 people, including Fofana, and seized 131 game tickets last week -- at least 70 of them for corporate hospitality.

Sports on 07/08/2014

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