The controversy with Vinícius that changes the rules of the game

BarcelonaA player will be sent off if they address an opponent with their mouth covered. This is the rule promoted by the International Football Association Board (IFAB), the body that regulates the rules of the game. The measure has been approved with urgent character at the request of FIFA due to the alleged racist insults denounced by Vinícius Júnior from Gianluca Prestianni, a Benfica player.

The controversy dates back to February 17, in the first leg of the Champions League round of 32 match between Benfica and Real Madrid. The match was proceeding normally until, in the 52nd minute, Vinícius addressed the match referee, François Letexier, to report racist insults from Prestianni. The French official activated the anti-racist protocol – with the gesture of folded arms – and the match was stopped for eight minutes.

The referee's report recorded the facts and UEFA opened an exhaustive investigation. In the first instance, the Argentine player was provisionally suspended, which prevented him from playing the return leg at the Santiago Bernabéu, a decision without precedent that caused unease at the Portuguese club. Despite reviewing the available images, no conclusive evidence of the racist insults denounced by Vinícius was found. Nevertheless, UEFA ended up sanctioning Prestianni with six matches for homophobic insults.

It is at this point that the system shows its limitations: without audio or image evidence, the sanction depends on hard-to-sustain indications. To avoid similar situations, IFAB has opted for a radical approach: prohibiting the gesture of covering one's mouth in conflict situations. The rule will debut at the next World Cup and will result in a direct expulsion.

FIFA also defends the change of winner in the Africa Cup

On the other hand, FIFA has also promoted new regulations to immediately sanction any withdrawal from the field of play as a form of protest. The objective is to avoid situations like the one experienced in the final of the Africa Cup between Morocco and Senegal, played in Rabat. In added time and with the score at 0-0, the Congolese referee Jean-Jacques Ndala Ngambo whistled a controversial penalty in favor of the Moroccans.

The Senegalese coach, Pape Thiaw, ordered his players to leave the field as a sign of protest. After a few minutes of tension, the team returned and the match resumed with the pending penalty, which Brahim missed. The match went into extra time, where Pape Gueye scored the goal that gave Senegal the title. However, the resolution came months later. FIFA withdrew the championship from the Teranga Lions and awarded the victory to Morocco because it considered that the temporary withdrawal from the field constituted a no-show.

To avoid new similar episodes, IFAB has established an unequivocal criterion: any player who abandons the match will be sent off; if the decision is made by the coach, they will also be sanctioned with a red card, and if the entire team withdraws, the match will be automatically forfeited.

Proposal to 'clean up' sanctions

Although there is no official confirmation yet, FIFA has also internally conveyed its concern about the current sanctioning policy for the World Cups. The current system establishes that a player who accumulates two yellow cards in different matches must serve a one-match suspension, a criterion that is considered excessively rigid in the context of short competitions.

The proposal on the table aims to make this mechanism more flexible and introduce a system for clearing of cautions at key moments of the tournament: once the group stage is over and, again, after the quarter-finals. The objective is to prevent decisive players from missing crucial matches due to an accumulation of cautions.