Real Madrid lose appeal: Marcelo’s 3-game ban stands

As we reported the day after Real Madrid’s win over Elche in Copa del Rey, it was going to be hard to overturn Marcelo’s 3-game suspension, mostly because the referee’s notebook after the game stated that the Brazilian left-back told the head official “you’re very bad”. Horrific words, of course — apocalyptic stuff. When those things are written in the notepad, the referee will have the ruling on his side, even if that initial call that Marcelo was sent off for was a bad call. (Which it was.)

Had Marcelo not said anything, there would’ve likely only been a two-game suspension, but this is mostly because of dissent and not because of a bad challenge from the wing-back.

With the dismissal of the appeal, Real Madrid will now be without Marcelo until at least the semi-finals of Copa del Rey should the team make it that far. That’s not a huge deal, given Carlo Ancelotti has both Ferland Mendy and Miguel Gutierrez to call upon.