Paraguayan defender Jose Pedroso has received a huge suspension for attacking the referee in a second division Chilean League game. Pedroso, receiving a red card in a highly charged Chilean second division match between his Rangers team and Deportes Concepcion, responded by grabbing referee Marcelo Miranda by the throat before being pulled away by his teammates.

The disciplinary tribunal of Chile's National Professional Football Association (ANFP) decided to hand him 20 matches ban for the aggressive act, five more for attacking the referee and two for the red card.

Defender Roberto Cereceda was the last name to be dropped from Marcelo Bielsa's Chile squad for the World Cup on Tuesday.

Bielsa's 23-man party for South Africa, which will play in Group H alongside Spain, Switzerland and Honduras, is dominated by players plying their trade on foreign soil.

Having reduced a larger squad to 25 names a fortnight ago, Bielsa dropped striker Hector Mancilla, who plays for Mexican side Toluca, days later.

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Oceania representatives New Zealand will lock horns with South American outsiders Chile in a friendly match in the build-up to this summer's World Cup. The match will be played on June 9.

"I think we've got some really good fixtures lined up leading into our arrival in South Africa, so something a bit more informal will be an ideal opportunity to finalise our build-up," said New Zealand coach Ricki Herbert to fifa.com.

Chile have called off friendlies against Costa Rica and North Korea next week in the wake of the massive earthquake which hit the country in the early hours of Saturday.

Chilean soccer federation president Harold Mayne-Nicholls said on the organisation's official website that it would be difficult to justify letting the game to go ahead after the disaster.

"Football cannot remain indifferent to the catastrophe which has hit our country and certainly not to the pain and tragedy of thousands of Chileans," Mayne-Nicholls said.