Neymar denies insulting referee at Copa America

Neymar has denied that he insulted a referee, after he was sent off in the Copa America match against Colombia.

The Brazil captain was shown a second yellow card for attempting to headbutt an opposing player. CONMEBOL has since slapped a four-match suspension on the Barcelona forward, effectively ruling him out of the tournament.

“Almost nothing happened in the tunnel,” Neymar, who is also accused of grabbing the referee by the arm and insulting him, told Globo TV.

“I was inside the tunnel and I knew that (the ref) was coming, so I ended up waiting for him to ask why he sent me off. But then there was a commotion, with security and other people thinking that I was nervous and maybe was going to hit him or something like that.

“I hope we can all learn from this. Brazil can still win matches; they can still win the Copa America. Brazil still has great players, they can handle this”.

Brazil will play the winners of Group C in the quarter-finals on Saturday.

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