Gianni Infantino has proposed that footballers who cover their mouths when speaking to opponents on the pitch could receive red cards under proposed changes to the laws of football.
It comes as Fifa intensifies its campaign against racism in the sport.
The Fifa president’s suggestion follows the recent controversy involving Real Madrid’s Vinicius Junior, who accused Benfica’s Gianluca Prestianni of directing discriminatory abuse towards him.
Players have traditionally used the tactic of covering their mouths to shield conversations from television cameras and lip readers.
Infantino now believes stronger action is required to deter those attempting to hide potentially abusive language from detection.
Prestianni has denied the allegations but was nonetheless suspended ahead of Benfica’s Champions League play-off second leg against Real Madrid, while a formal investigation takes place.
Following the match, the Brazilian forward took to Instagram to address the situation.
He wrote in Portuguese: “Racists are, above all, cowards. They need to put their shirts in their mouths to demonstrate how weak they are.”
Gianni Infantino has proposed that footballers who cover their mouths when speaking to opponents on the pitch could receive red cards
|
GETTY
The matter was raised during Saturday’s International Football Association Board gathering, where Infantino made clear his view that football’s authorities must adopt a more interventionist stance against players who obscure their mouths to evade scrutiny.
He told Sky News: “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.
“I simply do not understand, if you don’t have something to hide, you don’t hide your mouth when you say something.”
Gianluca Prestianni hid his face while speaking with Vinicius Jr in Benfica’s Champions League defeat to Real Madrid | GETTY
He added: “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.”
Measures could be agreed and implemented in time for use at this summer’s World Cup, with next month’s Fifa Congress in Vancouver the next important staging post.
Vinicius Jr was left furious during Real Madrid’s Champions League win over Benfica | GETTYInfantino, meanwhile, wants to encourage guilty parties to take public responsibility.
He said: “Maybe we should also think about not just punishing, but also somehow allowing, changing our culture, allowing players or whoever does something to apologise.
“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.”
