New Zealand's hopes of playing influential midfielder Ria Percival in tomorrow's crucial clash with England at Fifa's Under-20 Women's World Cup have been dashed.
The Junior Ferns appealed against Percival's second yellow card handed down by Costa Rican referee Erika Vargas late in their 4-3 win over hosts
Chile and her subsequent sending-off.
But Fifa's appeals committee yesterday rejected New Zealand claims of mistaken identity and ruled the mandatory one-match stand-down must be observed.
It is a body blow to New Zealand who must beat England to progress to post-section play.
There appears to be confusion over the grounds for dismissing the appeal.
Initially, it seemed the referee had gone to her pocket book to mark Caitlin Campbell for a soft challenge on a Chilean player which brought an immediate protest from Percival. The referee then appeared to change her mind and book Percival for dissent.
The Fifa committee should have taken a different stance given the awful display from the referee who failed to send off Chilean goalkeeper Claudia Ender for her 36th minute challenge on Sarah McLaughlan when she was clearly the last line of defence.
Vargas, rightly, awarded the penalty which Rosie White converted for 2-0 but took no action - as she was obliged to do - against the goalkeeper who went on to make many saves.
New Zealand coach John Herdman, obviously disappointed at the outcome, will now rethink his strategy and line-up for the match (11am tomorrow) against the unbeaten English.
"There has been a lot of talk about Ria, " said Herdman. "Her performances have had coaches commenting about what her loss means for us."
