Why is Argentina being investigated by FIFA?

Bad news for the Argentinian Football Association. FIFA have announced that they are opening an investigation into what happened during the awards ceremony after the Qatar 2022 World Cup final. Images from the celebrations hit the headlines around the world, with goalkeeper Emiliano ‘Dibu’ Martinez trending on Twitter for several days due his rather ‘unique’ way of accepting his trophy for best goalkeeper in the tournament.

FIFA say that La Albiceleste potentially breached a number of regulations, including player misconduct, offensive behaviour and fair play violations, along with and Media and Marketing violations. If found guilty, the AFA could be forced to be a hefty fine.

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What FIFA regulations might Argentina have broken?

“The FIFA Disciplinary Committee has opened proceedings against the Argentinian Football Association due to potential breaches of articles 11 (Offensive behaviour and violations of the principles of fair play) and 12 (Misconduct of players and officials) of the FIFA Disciplinary Code, as well as of article 44 of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ Regulations in conjunction with the Media and Marketing Regulations for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™, during the Argentina v. France FIFA World Cup™ final,” reads FIFA’s statement.

Germany fined for mouth-covering gesture

During the World Cup, the German national team was fined 10,000 Swiss francs ($10,783) for violating article 44 of the Qatar World Cup regulations. Their players covered their mouths in the pre-match photo ahead of their group game against Japan, a gesture which was a response to FIFA blocking their request to use the ‘One Love’ captain’s armband and which was another of the tournament’s most striking images. The German’s fine, however, was not for that reason but instead for failing to send a player along with manager Hansi Flick to a pre-match press conference. Argentina’s potential fine could be as much as double what Germany were forced to pay.