![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/91ee7b3f5f0e52fb5906122efaa878ea668ed6d71c8ef16363f7d09da5d78d2c.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Piero Hincapi\u00e9 was given a red card for covering his mouth in a confrontation.\u00a0SBS<\/p>\n
Hincapi\u00e9 was sent off in the 95th minute of\u00a0Ecuador\u2019s 2-0 loss to Mexico\u00a0in the round of 32 on Wednesday AEST. <\/p>\n
He was promptly shown the red card by Slovenian referee Slavko Vincic following an exchange with Mexico forward Santi Gim\u00e9nez.<\/p>\n
The dismissal sparked immediate criticism. Ex-Socceroos<\/a> player Robbie Cornthwaite didn\u2019t hold back his frustration at Hincapi\u00e9\u2019s brash behaviour in the dying moments of the match. <\/p>\n \u201cThis frustrates the hell out of me,\u201d Cornthwaite said, speaking on SBS Sport.<\/p>\n \u201cThe game is over. We know you\u2019re upset, you don\u2019t need to go and get yourself sent off, do something stupid.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s childish, it\u2019s petulant. You\u2019re trying to make a name for yourself or grab some attention \u2013 I don\u2019t know. It\u2019s so unnecessary.\u201d<\/p>\n Hincapi\u00e9 is not the first casualty of FIFA\u2019s aggressive crackdown on player\u2019s shielding their comments. <\/p>\n Paraguay\u2019s Miguel Almir\u00f3n became the first player punished under the new regulation after he was sent off during a tense group-stage clash against Turkey.<\/p>\n While Ecuador\u2019s World Cup journey has officially come to an end, the consequences of the card will carry over. <\/p>\n Hincapi\u00e9 is now suspended for his country\u2019s next official international match.<\/p>\n Santiago Gimenez immediately alerted the referee of the infringement. \u00a0Ryan Pierse<\/p>\n The strict enforcement of the rule has ignited debate across the footballing world.<\/p>\n England\u2019s Jude Bellingham<\/a> was spotted on the pitch covering his mouth while chatting to Ghana\u2019s Jordan Ayew, prompting FIFA to clarify that the rule is strictly for confrontational settings, not friendly discussion on the pitch which is commonplace in football<\/a>. <\/p>\n The decision of a red card in this World Cup is completely to the referee\u2019s discretion. <\/p>\n The game was not without drama as Mexican fans were heard using a homophobic chant in the stands during the first half of the match. <\/p>\n The chant, a one-word slur that means male prostitute in Spanish, usually occurs when the opposing goalkeeper is taking a goal kick. The fans did it five minutes into the game when\u00a0Hern\u00e1n Gal\u00edndez\u00a0kicked for the first time. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ecuador\u2019s Piero Hincapi\u00e9 has made history for all the wrong reasons. The defender became the second player to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":771790,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-771789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=771789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771789\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/771790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=771789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=771789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=771789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/e708e5b7a9e7bafc5436763ca8bdc99a35ade7480c7f21f60028f48e4f19b49e.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n