Are Barcelona & Real Madrid’s stars at risk of yellow card suspension for CL semi-finals? | OneFootball

The topic of the rules surrounding Champions League suspensions has taken its place front and centre in the Spanish media on Sunday.

This comes amid conflicting information regarding whether or not the country’s top clubs could be left without key performers, in the case of qualifying for the competition’s semi-finals.

A whole host of players across the squads of all of Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid were forced to walk the disciplinary tightrope in the opening leg of their respective Champions League quarter-final ties earlier this week.

This came with the likes of Frenkie de Jong, Ronald Araújo, Vinícius Jr and Jude Bellingham having been a solitary booking away from missing the 2nd leg through suspension.

Across the day to date, it has in turn been reported that such players will need to remain vigilant in the upcoming round of fixtures, with the threat of a yellow card-based ban also looming with a view to the opening legs of the Champions League’s final-4.

Claims to the contrary, however, have also spread, citing Rule 52.04 on UEFA’s official website:

‘All yellow cards expire on completion of the quarter-finals. They are not carried forward to the semi-finals.’

An altogether important exception to this rule, though, does in fact exist.

Whilst cards are indeed wiped upon the quarter-finals coming to a close, suspensions are not.

This means that, in the case of a player picking up their 3rd yellow card of the competition in the quarter-final 2nd-leg, they will in fact be suspended for the first-leg of the semi-finals, should their team qualify.

Those who manage to avoid a ban, though, will see their disciplinary slate wiped clean.

Conor Laird | GSFN