Players covering mouths during confrontations should be sent off - Infantino
#FIFA#Infantino#Racism#Football rules#Mouth covering#Champions League#UEFA#World Cup 2025
📌 Key Takeaways
FIFA president Gianni Infantino proposes red cards for players covering mouths during confrontations
The proposal follows an incident where Benfica's Gianluca Prestianni was accused of racist language toward Vinicius Jr
Football authorities are considering rule changes before the World Cup in summer 2025
Infantino believes covering the mouth indicates a player has said something inappropriate
📖 Full Retelling
Gianni Infantino, president of football's world governing body FIFA, has proposed that players covering their mouths during confrontations with opponents should be sent off, speaking at the International Football Association Board annual general meeting in Wales less than two weeks after Benfica winger Gianluca Prestianni was accused of racist language toward Real Madrid's Vinicius Jr. The FIFA chief told Sky News that referees should operate from a presumption that players hiding their mouths have said 'something they shouldn't have,' emphasizing the need for decisive action with a deterrent effect. Prestianni currently faces a provisional one-match ban from UEFA for alleged racist remarks during a Champions League match, which the Argentina international denies as the ethics and disciplinary investigation continues. Football authorities are actively developing measures to prevent players from concealing potentially offensive language during on-field confrontations, with potential new rules to be finalized at the FIFA Congress in Vancouver on April 30, 2025, in time for the upcoming World Cup.
Football is a family of team sports in which the object is to get the ball over a goal line, into a goal, or between goalposts using merely the body (by carrying, throwing, or kicking).
Unqualified, the word football generally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is use...
Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race or ethnicity over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against other people because they...
International governing body of association football
The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA; lit. 'International Association Football Federation' or 'International Federation of Association Football') is an international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach football, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 19...
Red cards for players covering mouths - Infantino By Dale Johnson Football issues correspondent Published 21 minutes ago 25 Comments Players who cover their mouths when speaking to opponents during confrontations should be sent off, says Gianni Infantino, the president of football's world governing body. Infantino told Sky News , external he thought referees should work from a presumption that players have said "something they shouldn't have". He was speaking less than two weeks after Benfica winger Gianluca Prestianni raised his shirt over his mouth while speaking to Real Madrid's Vinicius Jr during a Champions League game. The Argentina international has been given a provisional one-match ban by Uefa for alleged use of racist language, which he denies. The ban was imposed pending the result of a full investigation by an ethics and disciplinary inspector, and Prestianni could be punished further once the investigation is complete. Infantino said individual cases should be dealt with by the relevant bodies, but football more broadly must "act and be decisive" to bring in something which has "a deterrent effect". The issue was discussed at the International Football Association Board annual general meeting in Wales this weekend. It was agreed there would be consultation to develop measures to stop players hiding what they might be saying to an opponent. 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. "If you do not have something to hide, you don't hide your mouth when you say something. That's it, as simple as that." Vinicius: Eight years at Real Madrid, 20 cases of alleged racist abuse Published 18 February 'Anyone found guilty of racism should not be in the game' Published 19 February Courting controversy and befriending Trump - Fifa's 'unlikely...
