{"id":714991,"date":"2026-06-20T06:03:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T06:03:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/714991\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T06:03:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T06:03:12","slug":"paraguays-miguel-almiron-gets-first-ever-red-card-for-covering-mouth-in-situation-of-confrontation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/714991\/","title":{"rendered":"Paraguay\u2019s Miguel Almir\u00f3n gets first-ever red card for covering mouth in situation of confrontation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paraguay\u2019s Miguel Almir\u00f3n received the first-ever red card for talking with his mouth covered during his country\u2019s World Cup game against Turkey.<\/p>\n

The incident occurred in first-half added time of Paraguay\u2019s Group D match in Santa Clara, California on Friday, with Almir\u00f3n sent off following a VAR review involving referee Iv\u00e1n Barton going to the pitch-side monitor.<\/p>\n

Play had been stopped for a foul on Paraguay\u2019s Isidro Pitta and, as players from both teams gathered around the striker \u2014 who was on the floor by the near touchline \u2014 Almir\u00f3n appeared to say something to Turkey\u2019s Mert M\u00fcld\u00fcr while covering his mouth with his hand. M\u00fcld\u00fcr immediately ran off towards the assistant referee, pointing at Almir\u00f3n and miming the action the Atlanta United forward had done.<\/p>\n

Almir\u00f3n\u2019s red card means he will automatically miss Paraguay\u2019s final group-stage match against Australia next week. FIFA also has the power to lengthen his suspension if its disciplinary committee chooses to.<\/p>\n

Paraguay were leading 1-0 at the time of Almir\u00f3n\u2019s sending off, thanks to a second-minute goal from Mat\u00edas Galarza, and held on to win the match.<\/p>\n

\"Players<\/p>\n

\n Players crowded the referee after Paraguay\u2019s Pitta (on the ground) had been fouled. (Reuters \/ Eloisa Lopez)<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\n Almir\u00f3n clearly covered his mouth with his hand. (Fox)<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\n M\u00fcld\u00fcr was immediately aware that Almir\u00f3n had broken the rules. (Fox)<\/p>\n

\"Muldur<\/p>\n

\n M\u00fcld\u00fcr made it clear what Almir\u00f3n had done. (Dean Mouhtaropoulos \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\"Almiron<\/p>\n

\n Almir\u00f3n was visibly frustrated with himself (Stu Forster\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The sending-off Almir\u00f3n received was the first of its kind after the International Football Association Board \u2014 the body which sets the rules of the game \u2014 changed its laws in April<\/a> to include players covering their mouths in instances of confrontation being punishable with a red card.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf a player covers his mouth and says something, and this has a racist consequence, then he has to be sent off, obviously,\u201d FIFA president Gianni Infantino told Sky News in March.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it is a friendly conversation, they can continue to do it without any problem,\u201d FIFA referee chief Pierluigi Collina explained in June<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is something you do on purpose. It is not something that a player can do instinctively.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is no indication that Almir\u00f3n said anything abusive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paraguay\u2019s Miguel Almir\u00f3n received the first-ever red card for talking with his mouth covered during his country\u2019s World…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":714992,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[14864,1246,113962,6090,9523,35381,1084,403,99,12807,47812],"class_list":["post-714991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-atlanta-united-fc","tag-australia","tag-fifa-mens-world-cup","tag-international-football","tag-mls","tag-paraguay","tag-premier-league","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-turkey","tag-us-mens-national-team"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=714991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714991\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/714992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=714991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=714991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=714991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}