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Lionel Messi banned from all international football for 3 months for his ‘corruption’ outburst

Sport
Lionel Messi’s Copa America 2019 troubles are back again, and this time with a vengeance. After the star Argentinian footballer received a one match ban for his altercation with Gary Medel of Chile, leading to a red card for the former, Messi has now been banned for 3 months by CONMEBOL. As per a report […]

Lionel Messi’s Copa America 2019 troubles are back again, and this time with a vengeance. After the star Argentinian footballer received a one match ban for his altercation with Gary Medel of Chile, leading to a red card for the former, Messi has now been banned for 3 months by CONMEBOL.

As per a report from AFP, the ban has been implemented for the comments made by him after Argentina’s semi-final loss to Brazil. Visibly fed up with another failure in an international tournament, Messi spoke to the reporters and told them what he felt about the refereeing in that match, and how it was biased and favouring the host team. Later on he stated that Brazil were extremely powerful in the CONMEBOL, and such refereeing and corruption is preventing people from enjoying the beautiful game.

Needless to say that if we look at the soccer odds 2019, Lionel Messi continues to be a huge favourite in all the individual as well as team betting markets for the games featuring himself. This entire episode will cost him $ 50,000 in fine and prevent him from playing any national games for the next 3 months. On the betting front, it will impact the punters’ betting strategies for Argentina’s upcoming international friendlies.

It’ll be no more than a minor nuisance for Argentina

Looked at closely, the entire episode is quite unlike Messi who normally keeps a low profile at Barcelona. However, being the talisman as well as the captain of the Argentinian national team has resulted in him taking a more vocal route this time. Earlier he had a fight with the Argentinian FA too, forcing himself to retire post the 2016 Copa America, citing corruption in the federation as the main reason.

This ban will mostly be on paper as it will serve as nothing more than a minor nuisance for the Argentinian football. However, on the other side, the Barcelona fans would be celebrating right now, as the player will now be available for their matches! The FIFA World Cup 2022 qualifiers for the South America won’t begin before March 2020, well after his ban would have lifted in November this year. Argentina doesn’t have any competitive matches, except for 3 friendlies, scheduled before that.

A big blessing for Barca!

His temporary exit from the national side can prove to be a big blessing for Barca! The club is hunting for their first ever Champions League title since the year 2015 and has splurged a lot on Antoine Griezmann and Frenkie de Jong, to bolster their ranks. If reports are to be believed, they have also reached an agreement with the young Real Betis left back Junior Firpo.

Regardless, it cannot be denied that the Catalan football club revolves heavily around Lionel Messi and his magic on the field. Now that he won’t be involved in any of the Argentina’s friendlies, he will stay fresh during the early parts of the season as Barcelona completes its new signings and gains a good understanding of its Champions League group. On the whole, it seems like a win-win situation for both Messi and Barcelona! The former got to openly express his views and the latter got their best player back!