Thursday 4 December 2014 19:44, UK
Lionel Messi's yellow card shown for time-wasting after he was apparently hit on the head by an object thrown from the crowd in Sunday's La Liga game at Valencia has been rescinded.
Messi was celebrating Barcelona's 94th-minute winner near the corner flag at the Mestalla stadium when a plastic bottle was thrown from the stands and appeared to strike him on the head.
He was examined by medical staff after the final whistle and did not appear to be injured, giving the thumbs-up as he walked off the pitch.
Barca's initial appeal was rejected by the Spanish soccer federation's competition committee, prompting the club to lodge a second challenge with a higher appeals committee which ruled in their favour on Thursday.
A statement on the RFEF website said the committee had been unable to detect "deliberate time-wasting" on Messi's part but only "a normal reaction from someone who had suffered an aggression by a spectator".
Barca's 1-0 win kept them within two points of Real Madrid at the top of the table following Real's 2-1 victory at Malaga on Saturday.
