Fifa’s disciplinary rules state that any red card will carry a one-match ban, which ruled Ronaldo out of Portugal’s final qualifier against Armenia.
The announcement comes just days after Ronaldo was a star guest at a gala dinner with Donald Trump and the Fifa president in Washington.
Governing body sources maintained the effective reduced ban was because it was his first international red card of his long career. He has been sent off 12 times in club matches. The last England player to receive a straight red card was Raheem Sterling in a 2014 World Cup warm-up match. He only received a one-match ban for a reckless challenge on Antonio Valencia. Bans only cover competitive matches, not pre-tournament friendlies.
Fifa’s disciplinary code determines that a player should serve “at least three matches or an appropriate period of time for assault, including elbowing, punching, kicking, biting, spitting or hitting an opponent or a person other than a match official”. Under Article 27 of the code, however, the Fifa judicial committee which decides upon disciplinary sanctions has the option to “fully or partially suspend the implementation of a disciplinary measure”.
A Fifa statement said: “In line with Article 27 of the Fifa Disciplinary Code, the serving of the two remaining matches has been suspended under a one-year probation period. If Cristiano Ronaldo commits another infringement of a similar nature and gravity during the probationary period, the suspension set out in the disciplinary decision shall be deemed automatically revoked and the remaining two matches must be served immediately at the next official match(es) of the Portuguese representative team. This is without prejudice to any additional sanctions imposed for the new infringement.”
The suspension is subject to appeal to the Fifa appeal committee.
