Leandro Paredes Hit With 10-Game Ban for World Cup Final Brawl

More than a month after the tournament ended, FIFA has finally punished Argentina’s men’s soccer team for a series of incidents at the end of the World Cup.

The most serious punishment was for Leandro Paredes. Video showed Paredes attacking two Spanish players, tossing Gavi to the ground and grabbing Eric Garcia by the throat after Argentina’s 1–0 loss. FIFA suspended the midfielder for 10 games, essentially ruling him out from the national team for a year.

Other sanctions included:

• A $90,000 fine for Paredes and Nahuel Molina for their roles in the brawl
• A seven-game suspension for Molina
• A one-game suspension and $30,000 fine for Thiago Almada and Pablo Martin Paez Gavira
• $321,000 in fines for the Argentine Football Association
• Argentina must play its next two home games in front of a 50% crowd

In its announcement Friday, FIFA cited “discriminatory chants and gestures” and rules against “using a sports event for demonstrations of a non-sporting nature.” In addition to several incidents of racist abuse from Argentina fans, the semifinal between Argentina and England in Atlanta became a political flashpoint between the two countries.

Britain has held the remote islands since the 19th century; Argentina briefly invaded and went to war with the United Kingdom for them in 1982, and has maintained that it has sovereignty over the islands for decades.

After beating England, Argentina’s players laid a “Las Malvinas Son Argentinas” (“The Falklands Are Argentine”) banner on the field. Paredes told reporters in Spanish that the islands are rightly Argentine, and the Argentina foreign ministry said after the game that British ships had illegally entered its waterways.

FIFA has long had rules against displaying political signage inside stadiums. 

Argentina won $43 million for finishing second at the World Cup. Earlier this month, the AFA was one of a handful of national federations to continue backing embattled FIFA president Gianni Infantino after Infantino’s plan to sell commercial stakes in the World Cup collapsed.