Lausanne (Switzerland) (AFP) - FIFA has expanded the ban imposed by its European counterpart on the Argentine player for Benfica, Portuguese Gianluca Pristiani, due to “homophobic” behavior, to include international matches, according to what its spokesman told Agence France-Presse.

Published on: 05/06/2026 - 17:21

Last month, the European Union decided to suspend the 20-year-old international winger for six matches, including three suspended, due to the incident that occurred in the match between Benfica and Real Madrid in the first leg of the Champions League qualifying round.

Brazilian star Vinicius Junior accused the Argentine player of calling him a "monkey" during that match, which Pristiani denied.

UEFA opened an investigation into the incident and decided to temporarily suspend Pristiani from playing the return match until the final decision was issued, before subsequently punishing him with a suspension for three matches, including the return match against Real Madrid, while suspending the implementation of the suspension penalty in the other three for a probationary period of two years.

The Argentine player put his shirt over his mouth during his discussion with Vinicius, after which the Real Madrid star informed the referee that he had been subjected to a racist insult, which led to the match being stopped for about ten minutes.

Pristiani considered at the time that he was punished “without evidence” for something he did not do, saying in an interview with the Argentine channel “Telefe” that his absence from that match, which his team lost 1-2, “hurt me a lot.”

According to the decision of the FIFA Disciplinary Committee, issued at the request of UEFA, Pristiani may miss his country’s national team in its first two matches in the World Cup (June 11 - July 19) if he is called up by coach Lionel Scaloni.

However, the player has very limited experience with the Argentine national team, as he only participated four minutes in a friendly match against Angola last November.

© 2026 AFP

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