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Malcom has had a ban for diving extended after the Bordeaux forward appealed against the punishment. The 20-year-old, who was strongly linked to Arsenal during the January transfer window, had initially been given a one-game suspension for the act of simulation that won his team a penalty in the 3-1 win over Lyon in late January. He had also been told he would sit out a further match if he infringed again. With Lyon forward Mariano Diaz having been cleared in a similar incident in December, Bordeaux were optimistic the sanction would be lifted. Instead, Malcom was hit with two-game ban when he presented his case to the French Football Federation (FFF), meaning he will miss a Ligue 1 game against Nice at home on Sunday and the trip to Monaco on March 2. "I am speechless," Bordeaux president Stephane Martin said, according to L'Equipe, adding that Malcom's absence against Nice, level on 35 points with Bordeaux in eighth place, is a major blow. "We'll be deprived of our leading scorer and assist-maker against a direct rival. It's a punishment that we mustn't minimise the impact of." Bordeaux had appealed because the referee, Francois Letexier, had provided a report that was -- according to Martin -- "word for word" the same as he had written about the Diaz incident. "Sporting fairness is to treat two similar cases in the same way," Bordeaux's majority shareholder Nicolas de Tavernost told L'Equipe. "I ask myself, 'Why isn't that the case?' It's a problem of fairness in terms of sports organisation. If the commission isn't equitable, it's worrying."
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