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FIFA issued a double snub to World Cup hosts Brazil yesterday, rejecting an appeal for captain Thiago Silva's semi-final suspension to be overturned and dismissing calls for retrospective action against Colombia defender Juan Camilo Zuniga.
A statement from FIFA's Disciplinary Committee said no action would be taken against Zuniga for his tackle which left Brazil
striker Neymar with a tournament-ending back injury.
And the request to rescind Silva's yellow card - which rules him out of tonight's semi-final against Germany - was dismissed because there was "no legal basis" to grant the request, FIFA said.
Meanwhile:
The excitement on the pitch ahead of tonight's clash and tomorrow's second semi-final between Argentina and the Netherlands has been tempered somewhat by news that Brazilian police have arrested a director from the FIFA partner company handling World Cup ticket packages.
They are accusing him of leading a network that illegally sold game passes.
64 year-old British citizen Ray Whelan, a director at Match Hospitality, was detained at Rio de Janeiro's luxurious beachfront Copacabana Palace Hotel last night, days after 11 people were rounded up in a raid to dismantle the network.
