Fifa's disciplinary committee has decided to uphold the ban that was handed to Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez after his biting incident at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
The 27-year-old sunk his teeth into Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini, for a third time in his professional career, during his national side's group stage encounter with Italy, resulting in a four-month ban from all football-related activities, and a nine international game ban as well.
This means the Blaugrana forward, who moved from English Premier League side Liverpool on £75m deal, cannot feature for his new employers, train alongside his team-mates, nor be unveiled at Camp Nou until he sees through his ban, which ends on October 26.
Despite appealing the punishment, football's governing body has opted against reducing the punishment, confirming his international ban will stand for another eight games, after already sitting out one of La Celeste Olímpica's match, the round of 16 clash with Colombia.
Suarez will serve out the remainder of his 9-match ban for his bite on Azzurri defender Giorgio Chiellini
This comes after MARCA reported the Barcelona star's lawyers were growing confident that there would be a "significant reduction" to the player's lengthy ban after taking the appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), who will hold a hearing regarding the case on August 8.
The Uruguayan cannot feature for his new club Barcelona until October 26
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The Spanish outlet claims to have contacted arbitrators of the CAS, and state that they consider Suarez's punishment as "disproportionate", and that it should not have "extended beyond the FIFA-organised competition" in which the incident occurred.
