Messi fined for wishing his mother a happy birthday

[Dana]

Messi fined for wishing his mother a happy birthday

By Brooks Peck


Once Lionel Messi converted his penalty in Barcelona's 3-0 win over Racing Santander on Saturday, he pulled up his shirt to reveal a message scrawled across his undershirt. It wished his mami a happy birthday for all the cameras to see. A nice gesture from a grateful child to the woman who carried him around inside her body for nine months before enduring labor and allowing the world to be graced with his abilities, but also one that the killjoys at the Spanish football federation felt compelled to punish because of their strict rules against shirt messages.
From Reuters:

The referee did not book the Argentine forward for the celebration but mentioned the action in his match report.
The federation's disciplinary committee punished Messi under their article 91.1 for goal celebrations, which carries a fine of between 2000 and 3000 euros, and awarded him a yellow card.
​

To someone who makes as much as Messi does, a fine of a couple thousand euros is hardly worth caring about and probably something he knew would happen before doing it. Still, that money could have gone to more Legos.

 

[skyblue]

just one of the ridiculous rules now imposed by sepp splatter and his F.I.F.A. lapdogs

 

[Springsteen]

Barcelona have announced they will appeal the decision.

Speaking with Guillem Balague as I do regularly, he said Barca will use the precedent set last year when a player did the same thing but his message was a tribute to Daniel Jarque, a footballer who died suddenly, he was also fined but appealed and won the appeal.

As for Messi, what a great player.

 

[HK]

He should have written it on his bare chest, maybe that would have been okay because it wasn't on a shirt

 

[Springsteen]

I think the Federation are under pressure from the sponsors of the clubs. They basically get upset when the Sponsor gets hidden (like in this case) so that's the main reason. Unicef sponsor Barcelona.

 

[Peter Parka]

Fucking stupid. It's like the shit we had last week with Piquonne getting sent off for celebrating. This rule contributes nothing to the game and sucks out the fun and passion.:thumbdown

 

[Carn]

I agree the rule is stupid. But since it's their then I don't know why Messi should be any different from all the other players so the appeal seems pointless to me.

 

[hart]

Gee wishing his mother happy birthday, they should have shot him!