Argentina

Lionel Messi denies swearing at official, claims he cursed 'to the air'

Published Mar. 29, 2017 5:47 p.m. ET

Alex Dowd

Lionel Messi has made steps to try and cover his you-know-what after being suspended by FIFA for verbally abusing a referee's assistant.

"My comments were never directed at the first assistant, they were comments made to the air," Messi said per the Argentina Football Association's appeal, via AS.

Ah, yes, the old "I wasn't saying it to you" defense. Much like when your parents catch you muttering something under your breath but you know you're toast. AS also claimed a note from Messi accompanied the appeal, but didn't reveal what the note said.

Messi got into it with the assistant referee in Argentina's 1-0 win against Chile on Friday. The video evidence (Warning: NSFW language, obviously) pretty clearly shows he wasn't just shooting off arbitrarily, too. The Argentine already missed Tuesday's match against Bolivia while serving the suspension, and he's slated to miss three more World Cup qualifying matches. There's a chance his suspension gets reduced

The prospect of Messi missing three more matches puts Argentina's World Cup hopes in severe jeopardy. There's a chance his suspension gets reduced, but it'll probably take more than the AFA's flimsy, air-blaming excuse to get it done.