Richmond defender Bachar Houli will miss the next four weeks of football.

On Thursday night, the AFL's appeals board upheld the League's appeal and suspended Houli for four matches.

Houli was initially suspended for two weeks after being sent straight to the tribunal by the Match Review Panel for his strike on Carlton's Jed Lamb, which concussed the former Giant and Swan and which will see him miss this week's round of football.

The AFL opted to appeal the tribunal's decision to suspend Houli for two weeks, the first time the League has ever challenged a tribunal ruling, stating the ban was "manifestly inadequate"

The AFL won the case on Thursday night, with the Tigers' defender now suspended for four weeks.

In reaching the verdict, the appeals board ruled that character references, which formed a large basis of Houli's defence on Tuesday night, are irrelevant when it comes to on-field incidents.