Paraguay's Miguel Almirón gets first-ever red card for covering mouth in situation of confrontation

Paraguay's Miguel Almirón received the first red card for talking with his mouth covered during his country's World Cup game against Turkey. The incident occured in first-half added time of Paraguay's Group D match in Santa Clara, California on Friday with Almirón sent off following a VAR review involving referee Iván Arcides Barton Cisneros. Play had been stopped for a foul on Paraguay's Isidro Pitta and, as players from both teams gathered around the incident on the near touchline, Almirón appeared to say something to Turkey's Mert Mulder while covering his mouth with his hand. Mulder immediately ran off towards the assistant referee pointing at Almirón and miming the action the Atlanta United forward had done. Almirón's red card means he will automatically miss Paraguay's final group-stage match against Australia next week. FIFA also has the power to lengthen his suspension if its disciplinary committee chooses to. The sending-off Almirón received was the first of its kind after the International Football Association Board -- the body which sets the rules of the game -- changed its laws in April to include players covering their mouths in instances of confrontation being punishable with a red card. 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. In that game, Vinicius Jr alleged that Prestianni had racially abused him but the Argentine had covered his mouth with his shirt during the incident. Prestianni denied racially abusing Vinicius Jr and was later hit with a six-game ban, three of which weres suspended, after admitting to homophobic conduct. "If a player covers his mouth and says something, and this has a racist consequence, then he has to be sent off, obviously," FIFA president Gianni Infantino told Sky News in March. IFAB then convened an extraordinary meeting where the decision was made to make the simple action of covering your mouth while confronting an opponent a red-card offence. There is no indication Almirón said anything abusive.