Barcelona have appealed against a UEFA proposal to suspend Andres Iniesta from the first leg of their Champions League semi-final encounter with Real Madrid.
UEFA will decide on Wednesday whether to ban the Barcelona midfielder for an additional match for allegedly picking up a yellow card on purpose.
Iniesta collected the yellow card during Barcelona’s 5-1 win first leg win over Shakhtar Donetsk at Camp Nou on 6 April, meaning he was suspended for the return leg.
However, UEFA match officials at the Barcelona-Shakhtar game issued a report alleging Iniesta picked up the yellow card deliberately. The proposed suspension would would force Iniesta to miss the Champions League match against arch-rinals Real Madrid at the Bernabeu stadium on 27 April.
“FC Barcelona have this evening submitted an appeal to UEFA against the proposed imposition of an additional game suspension for Andres Iniesta following the yellow card he picked up against Shakhtar at the Nou Camp on April 6th,” the club said.
“FC Barcelona believe that the arguments outlined in their appeal, based on the good faith of the player and the disproportionate nature of the proposed sanction will be sufficient to rebut these allegations.”
