No federation body reduced Vinicius Junior's four-match ban before the Clasico on 25 October 2026: BBC Sport on 22 October and The Guardian on 24 October still report a four-match suspension, and he was not in Real Madrid's squad; the federation site blocked the page, so the two media settle it.
Hunch. Vinicius Junior said on 15 October that he used no offensive word to the referee, and the two games for protesting are the part an appeal would attack.
The federation market resolves on decisions of the Royal Spanish Football Federation as reported by BBC Sport, The Guardian or ESPN: YES if before kick-off on 25 October 2026 a federation body, the competition committee on review or the appeal committee, officially reduces the number of games in Vinicius Junior's ban by at least one, whether or not that frees the Clasico, and NO if no such reduction comes, including if the club does not appeal. A decision of the state sports tribunal or a court does not count, and Al Jazeera and Sky Sports are the backups.
We looked for cases where Spain’s football federation banned a top-division player for two or more games, and the ban covered a match against the club’s main rival or a national final. We found four such bans from 2009 to 2022. One was paused in time for the big match, by a state court, and three were not.