Infantino says players who cover mouths when speaking could be sent off

FIFA president Gianni Infantino has suggested players who cover their mouths while talking to opponents could be sent off, in light of racism allegations against Benfica’s Gianluca Prestianni.

Argentina’s Prestianni was accused of racially abusing Real Madrid forward Vinicius Junior during a Champions League game last month, while covering his mouth with his shirt.

The issue was brought up at Saturday’s meeting of the International Football Association Board (IFAB).

“If a player covers his mouth and says something, and this has a racist consequence, then he has to be sent off, obviously,” Infantino 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.

“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.”

The next FIFA Congress will be held next month in Vancouver, where football’s governing body could decide to implement measures to stop players covering their mouths at this year’s World Cup.

Infantino also floated the possibility of different punishments for racist abuse depending on whether or not the guilty player publicly apologises.

“Maybe we should also think about not just punishing, but also somehow allowing, changing our culture, allowing players or whoever does something to apologise,” he added.

“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 and maybe we should think about something like that as well.”

Prestianni was provisionally suspended for the second leg of the Champions League tie pending the outcome of a UEFA investigation, and could be banned for 10 matches if found guilty. He denies racially abusing Vinicius.