World Cup referee fumes at Miguel Almiron with incredible VAR red card reaction | OneFootball

A referee at the World Cup has shown Premier League refs exactly how VAR decisions should be conveyed to the crowd after he seemed absolutely fuming at Miguel Almiron.

After Premier League fans were conditioned to believe that every referee had a gruff northern accent, the World Cup has already given us some treats when it comes to referees appearing over the stadium tannoy.

The first of those was Wilton Sampaio of Brazil who gave out a VAR red card in the tournament’s opening match but even the player that got sent off was not quite sure if he was or not after Sampaio stumbled over his words.

This time round though, there was no room for uncertainty.

In stoppage time of the first half, the referee Ivan Barton went over to the monitor and saw that Miguel Almiron of Newcastle fame had covered his mouth as he spoke to Turkey’s Mert Müldür.

That is a big no-no in this World Cup after FIFA brought in a rule dictating it was a straight red card if any player covered their mouth while speaking to an opponent, a change brought in after Gianluca Prestianni covered his mouth and was accused of racism towards Vinicius Junior in last season’s Champions League.

It was an open-and-shut case for Barton who marched back onto the pitch, looked at Almiron before shouting “AFTER REVIEW, NUMBER 10 PARAGUAY COVERED HIS MOUTH. DECISION IS RED CARD!”

To top off this chef’s kiss of a moment, Barton wafts his hand at Almiron to tell him to leave the pitch before turning his back to him and marching back towards the centre spot. Majestic stuff.

Almiron is becoming quite the history maker at this World Cup as he has become the first person to be the subject of not one but two IFAB law changes.

Before his red card for covering his mouth, Almiron was also the first player to be booked under the new mistaken identity law.

That came in Paraguay’s opening match when the USA’s Tim Ream was initially given a yellow card for tripping up Almiron. However, the incident was reviewed by VAR and shown to be a clear dive by Almiron and so Ream’s yellow was removed and Almiron was booked instead.

Almiron’s red means he will miss Paraguay’s final group match against Australia with both sides hopeful of making it through to the next round.

The two teams are tied on three points although Australia is ahead due to a superior goal difference.

Realistically, a draw would suit both sides as four points should be enough to go through as third best team but both will want to remove any doubt by winning the match.

The USA have already qualified as group winners and so will play their Round of 32 match at the San Francisco Bay Area Stadium on July 1.

By Sam Cooper