The International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) is considering imposing a fine and suspending Lionel Messi from playing with the Argentine national team.
This comes due to the way the flea objected to the referee of the recent Argentina-Paraguay match in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers.
Messi demanded that Omar Alderte receive a red card after his violent intervention that earned him a second yellow card and would have turned the match upside down.
According to Argentine media, Messi told referee Anderson Daronco, “You are a coward, I don’t like you,” and began waving his face and insulting him as he left the field.
Players are usually not fined or suspended for such matters unless the words are insulting or exaggerated in general, which is the case with Messi.
Therefore, FIFA is studying what happened in preparation for imposing a penalty on Messi that could reach a suspension for a number of international matches.
The Argentine national team will play Peru at dawn on Wednesday, and so far Messi can participate normally unless he finds something new in the coming hours.
