Neymar has been definitively ruled out of Sunday’s Clásico against Real Madrid in the Bernabéu after the Spanish Sports Tribunal (TAD) confirmed Barcelona had not lodged a final appeal against a three-game ban handed to the Brazilian forward after his sending off against Málaga.

"Nobody has asked for an appeal to be studied"

The TAD said it had not received any communication from Barcelona seeking temporary stay on the ban pending appeal by 15:00 CET, the deadline for doing so. “No appeal of any kind has been presented and we have ended our meeting,” the TAD president Enrique Arnaldo told reporters. “Nobody has asked for an appeal to be studied.”

When quizzed as to what course the TAD might take if an appeal was lodged later in the day, Arnaldo said: “We have never reconvened in the afternoon. We have had our meeting.”

Barcelona claim they did send the paperwork and announced at 13:00 that the club was seeking to exhaust the final legal path to have Neymar’s ban provisionally suspended.

Neymar red in La Rosaleda

Full screen David Ramos (Getty Images)

The forward was sent off in La Rosaleda as Barça lost 2-0 to Málaga and had an extra two games added to his initial double yellow card suspension for sarcastically applauding the fourth official as he headed down the tunnel.

Neymar will now miss the Clásico – a must-win game for Barcelona – as well as the side’s next two Liga fixtures against Osasuna and Espanyol.