Footballers who cover mouths during on-pitch rows should be sent off, says FIFA boss
Gianni Infantino is reacting swiftly to the racism reported by Vinicius Junior while playing for Real Madrid in the Champions League last month.
Sunday 1 March 2026 19:45, UK
FIFA's president has told Sky News that footballers who cover their mouths in confrontations with rivals should be sent off on the presumption they are being offensive.
Gianni Infantino has also revealed a desire to reduce the minimum 10-game ban for players who are apologetic for discrimination to encourage a change of attitudes.
But he told football to stop saying "it's a problem in society" and prioritise dealing with racism within the sport.
Mr Infantino - along with rule-making body IFAB - is reacting swiftly to the racism reported by Vinicius Junior while playing for Real Madrid against Benfica in the Champions League on February 17.
The case could be harder to prove because Benfica's Gianluca Prestianni covered his mouth with his shirt while allegedly abusing the Brazilian, who is one of football's most high-profile black players.
"If a player covers his mouth and says something, and this has a racist consequence, then he has to be sent off, obviously," Infantino, who is the boss of world football, 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."
While Benfica originally complained about a "defamation" campaign, manager Jose Mourinho now says Prestianni's career in his team would be over if found guilty of racism.
Mr Infantino acknowledged a need for European governing body UEFA to still complete its investigation, having provisionally suspended Prestianni for the second leg which Benfica lost.
"There are situations which we did not foresee," he said. "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."
The plan is for the laws of the game to be strengthened by the International Football Association Board by April, in time to be implemented at the World Cup in June.
Mr Infantino said: "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."
Infantino has now revealed a change in approach to punishments that could be coming.
"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 fight is as much about punishments as how to stop abuse in the stands, on pitches and online in football.
"We have to stop racism," Infantino said. "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."
