The president of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, took a stand in the midst of the investigation into the cross between Gianluca Prestianni and Vinícius Júnior and launched a strong proposal: to expel any player who covers his mouth when speaking if that gesture is linked to
a racist expression.“If a player covers his mouth and says something, and that has a racist consequence, then he has to be banned, obviously,” he said in a dialogue with Sky News. The Swiss leader went further and raised a direct presumption about this conduct: "There must be a presumption that he has said something that he should not have said. Otherwise, he wouldn't have had to cover his mouth. I just don't understand it: if you have nothing to hide, don't cover your mouth when you say something
.”
Infantino reinforced his message with an institutional approach: "That's all, it's that simple. And these are actions that we can take and that we need to take to take seriously our fight against racism.”
