FIFA President Gianni Infantino has called for players who cover their mouths when speaking to opponents to be shown red cards, arguing that such actions indicate “they have said something they shouldn’t have.”
Speaking to Sky News, Infantino proposed that referees should operate under a presumption of guilt when players hide their mouths during confrontations, as part of football’s ongoing battle against racism and verbal abuse.
The proposal comes less than two weeks after Benfica winger Gianluca Prestianni was given a provisional one-match ban by UEFA for allegedly using racist language towards Real Madrid’s Vinicius Jr during a Champions League fixture. Prestianni had raised his shirt over his mouth while speaking to the Brazilian forward, and denies the allegations.
‘If you have nothing to hide’
Infantino, who marked his 10th anniversary as FIFA president on Thursday, was emphatic in his reasoning.
“If a player covers his mouth and says something, and this has a racist consequence, then he has to be sent off, obviously,” Infantino said.
“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.”
The issue was discussed at the International Football Association Board (IFAB) annual general meeting in Wales this weekend. While no immediate agreement was reached, it was decided that consultation would begin to develop measures preventing players from concealing what they say to opponents.
World Cup timeline
FIFA Secretary General Mattias Grafstrom confirmed that discussions would continue ahead of the FIFA Congress in Vancouver on 30 April, raising the possibility of law changes being implemented in time for this summer’s World Cup.
“We want to continue the discussion and potentially come up with measures before the World Cup,” Grafstrom said on Saturday. “We will have the FIFA Congress, and that will be an opportunity to have a discussion.”
However, Football Association Chief Executive Mark Bullingham, who sits on the IFAB board, urged caution, stressing that more consultation was needed to avoid unintended consequences.
“We need to consult the game more broadly and work out where we would avoid any unforeseen circumstances,” Bullingham said.
“You can see when a player is talking to an opponent, there are very few circumstances where they should need to cover their mouth when they are confronting them. We need to look at everything and make sure if we were going to bring in a rule change or a penalty that we’re not going to create further problems.”
Infantino emphasised that individual cases should be handled by the relevant football bodies, but insisted the sport must “act and be decisive” in introducing measures with “a deterrent effect.”
The Prestianni case remains under investigation by a UEFA ethics and disciplinary inspector, with the provisional ban in place pending the outcome of the full inquiry.
