Paraguay’s Miguel Almirón gets first-ever red card for covering mouth in situation of confrontation

Paraguay’s Miguel Almirón received the first-ever red card for talking with his mouth covered during his country’s World Cup game against Turkey.

The incident occurred in first-half added time of Paraguay’s Group D match in Santa Clara, California on Friday, with Almirón sent off following a VAR review involving referee Iván Barton going to the pitch-side monitor.

Play had been stopped for a foul on Paraguay’s Isidro Pitta and, as players from both teams gathered around the striker — who was on the floor by the near touchline — Almirón appeared to say something to Turkey’s Mert Müldür while covering his mouth with his hand. Müldür immediately ran off towards the assistant referee, pointing at Almirón and miming the action the Atlanta United forward had done.

Almirón’s red card means he will automatically miss Paraguay’s final group-stage match against Australia next week. FIFA also has the power to lengthen his suspension if its disciplinary committee chooses to.

Paraguay were leading 1-0 at the time of Almirón’s sending off, thanks to a second-minute goal from Matías Galarza, and held on to win the match.

The sending-off Almirón received was the first of its kind after the International Football Association Board — the body which sets the rules of the game — changed its laws in April to include players covering their mouths in instances of confrontation being punishable with a red card.

That law came in following an incident involving Real Madrid winger Vinicius Junior and Benfica midfielder Gianluca Prestianni during a UEFA Champions League match in February.

In that game, Vinicius Jr alleged that Prestianni had racially abused him when the Argentine spoke to him while covering his mouth with his shirt. Prestianni denied racially abusing Vinicius Jr and was later hit with a six-game ban, three of which were suspended, for homophobic conduct.

“If a player covers his mouth and says something, and this has a racist consequence, then he has to be sent off, obviously,” FIFA president Gianni Infantino told Sky News in March.

IFAB then convened an extraordinary meeting where the decision was made to make the action of covering your mouth while confronting an opponent a red-card offence.

“If it is a friendly conversation, they can continue to do it without any problem,” FIFA referee chief Pierluigi Collina explained in June.

“We respect that there are players who are friends and it is normal to chat before, during or after the match. When it is confrontational, it is a completely different story. Covering the mouth means you are doing something potentially very wrong.”

“This is something you do on purpose. It is not something that a player can do instinctively.”

There is no indication that Almirón said anything abusive.