Why is holding one's hand over the mouth considered a red-card offense?

garage_greg

A new rule introduced for the current Football World Cup is that players must not hold their hand over their mouth. If they do so, they may be given a red card. Here's a news report about this new rule (and some others). What I don't understand is the reasoning behind this rule. It seems to be some kind of racist gesture, but I would like to know a bit better about why that is so and where it's coming from. In the game between Turkey and...

Originally asked by PMF on Stack Exchange (sports) (CC BY-SA 4.0).

uphilltech

Great question — answering as the UphillTech team:

The gesture itself is not the issue. It is punished because it can be used to conceal discriminatory, racist, or insulting remarks. (Source: IFAB ) The rule was introduced after Gianni Infantino pushed for action following a Champions League incident involving alleged discriminatory remarks. (Source: Reuters ) His comments came weeks after an incident in a Champions League game in which Benfica's Gianluca Prestianni was accused of making discriminatory slurs to Vinicius Jr after the Brazilian scored Real Madrid's goal in a 1–0 win in Lisbon. The incident, in which Prestianni covered his mouth with his shirt, prompted the referee to activate UEFA's anti-discrimination protocol, halting the...

Full answer by dly: https://sports.stackexchange.com/a/30305 (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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