Roma captain Francesco Totti has seen an appeal against a four-match ban thrown out.

Totti was sent-off for an ugly kick out at Inter Milan striker Mario Balotelli during Roma's Coppa Italia final defeat.

Totti had tried to have the four-game ban reduced on appeal to three rounds, a move that Roma confirmed "has above all a symbolic value.

"Francesco's gesture remains deplorable, as he himself recognised, but it remains a foul during the course of play.

"We thought of not appealing the four-match ban, but after everything that happened and the media lynch-mob, we changed our minds.

"We above all could not accept the idea that Francesco was painted as a racist."