FIFA President Considers Sending Off Players Who Cover Their Mouths

FIFA president Gianni Infantino has suggested that players who cover their mouths while speaking to opponents could be sent off, following racism allegations involving Benfica’s Gianluca Prestianni.

The Argentina forward is accused of racially abusing Real Madrid’s Vinicius Junior during a Champions League match last month while hiding his mouth with his shirt.

Speaking to Sky News, Infantino said:
“If a player covers his mouth and says something, and this has a racist consequence, then he has to be sent off, obviously. There must be a presumption that he has said something he shouldn’t have said, otherwise he wouldn’t have had to cover his mouth. I simply do not understand — if you don’t have something to hide, you don’t hide your mouth when you say something. That’s it, as simple as that.”

The matter was discussed at Saturday’s International Football Association Board (IFAB) meeting. FIFA could implement rules at the next Congress in Vancouver to prevent players from covering their mouths at this year’s World Cup.

Infantino also floated the idea of varying punishments depending on whether the player apologizes:
“Maybe we should also think about not just punishing, but also somehow allowing, changing our culture, allowing players or whoever does something to apologise…You can do things that you don’t want to do in a moment of anger (and) apologise and then the sanction has to be different, to move one step further.”

Prestianni was provisionally suspended for the second leg of the Champions League tie and could face a 10-match ban if found guilty. He denies any racist abuse.

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