FIFA President Gianni Infantino has said that footballers who cover their mouths during confrontations on the pitch with opponents should be sent off.
Infantino made this claim as it ought to be assumed that players who do this are being offensive. He has also revealed a desire to reduce the minimum 10 match ban for players who apologise for being offensive in order to encourage a change in attitude.
This comes following the recent uproar over the Champions League tie between Real Madrid and Benfica, where Madrid's Vinicius Junior reported that he had been racially abused by Benfica's Gianluca Prestianni on February 17.
The case was increasingly harder to prove, as Prestiani had his mouth covered while he allegedly racially abused the Madrid winger, who is one of the most high profile black players in football.
Mr Infantino has reacted swiftly to this incident, along with the rule-making body, IFAB, and has stated that football should stop saying "it's a problem in society", adding that it should make dealing with racism with the sport the top priority.
"If a player covers his mouth and says something, and this has a racist consequence, then he has to be sent off, obviously", the FIFA boss 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".
Mr Infantino went on to state that UEFA's investigation into this alleged incident is still ongoing, with Prestiani provisionally suspended for the second leg of this tie between Benfica and Madrid. Madrid eventually won the game over two legs, with Vinicius scoring goals in both games.
"There are situations which we did not foresee," Infantino continued. "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".
Elsewhere, Mr Infantino has warned that tougher sanctions could be handed down to anyone found guilty of racially abusing an opponent during the game, with plans for the laws to be enhanced by the IFAB by April, in time for the 2026 FIFA World Cup in June.
"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", Infantino said. "And these are actions that we can take and we have to take in order to be serious about our fight against racism".
He added: "We need to act and to be decisive and it has to have a deterrent effect," 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".
The President also stated that this fight is as much about punishments as it is about stopping racial abuse in the stands, on the pitches and online/social media in football.
"We have to stop racism," Mr Infantino insisted. "We cannot just be satisfied by saying well it's a problem in society so we cannot do anything about it except what we are already doing".
Should be found guilty of racist abuse, Benfica manager, Jose Mourinho has said that Prestiani's career with Benfica will be "over".
Back in 2023, Gianni Infantino drew controversy after being spotted taking selfies at the funeral of football legend, Pelé. Find out more on this from Nova here.
