-
News
- 4 hours ago
FIFA calls for players covering their mouths to be sent off
Martin Macdonald
- 2 Mar 2026 09:01 CST
- 4 min read
News
FIFA president Gianni Infantino says players who cover their mouths while speaking on the pitch could be sent off if new rules are implemented.
The subject is in the news at the moment due to the current investigation into Benfica forward Gianluca Prestianni, who has been accused of racially abusing Vinicius Junior during a Champions League match between the Portuguese side and Real Madrid.
The Brazilian opened the scoring with a wonder goal and celebrated thereafter, with those celebrations apparently offending some of the Benfica players.
A melee ensued and Vinicius reported to the referee that he had been abused. The investigation into Prestianni is complicated by the fact that he covered his mouth while making the alleged comments.
Doing so could soon be banned if Infantino has his way.
"If a player covers his mouth and says something, and this has a racist consequence, then he has to be sent off, obviously," he told Sky News.
"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.
"There are situations which we did not foresee. Of course, when you deal with a disciplinary case, you have to analyse the situation, you have to have evidence, but we cannot just be satisfied with that going forward.
"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.
"And these are actions that we can take and we have to take in order to be serious about our fight against racism."
UEFA bans Prestianni but investigation continues
UEFA banned Prestianni for the second leg of the Champions League playoff tie between Benfica and Real Madrid, which Los Blancos would go on to win.
A statement read:
"Following the appointment of a UEFA Ethics and Disciplinary Inspector (EDI) to investigate allegations of discriminatory behaviour during the UEFA Champions League 2025/2026 Knock-out Play-off match between SL Benfica and Real Madrid CF on 17 February 2026, and upon request of the EDI with an interim report, the UEFA Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Body (CEDB) today decided to provisionally suspend Mr. Gianluca Prestianni for the next (1) UEFA club competition match for which he would otherwise be eligible for the prima facie violation of Article 14 of the UEFA Disciplinary Regulations (DR) related to a discriminatory behaviour.
"This is without prejudice to any ruling that the UEFA disciplinary bodies may subsequently make following the conclusion of the ongoing investigation and its respective submission to the UEFA disciplinary bodies."
Some reports have claimed that Prestianni is arguing that he made a homophobic rather than a racist comment, but this will do little to help his case, as homophobia obviously also qualifies as discriminatory behaviour and ought to be punished in much the same fashion as racism.
Benfica have announced that they will appeal this ruling as they "regret being deprived of the player while the case is still under investigation and will appeal UEFA's decision."
The FootballTransfers app
Check out FootballTransfers' new app for all of football's big storylines, transfer rumours and exclusive news in one convenient place directly on your mobile device.
The FootballTransfers app is available in the Apple App Store. Download here:
