‘Irregular’ Messi ban blasted

Lionel Messi’s fourmatch ban in World Cup qualifying was unfair and irregular, the new president of the Argentine Football Association (AFA) said on Friday.

Claudio Tapia, elected on Wednesday, also said Messi was banned from four of Argentina’s last five qualifiers because the AFA had lost its influence in FIFA.

Messi was banned on Tuesday for verbally abusing an assistant referee in Argentina’s qualifying win over Chile last week.

Argentina is out of the automatic qualifying spots in fifth position in the South American standings.

It lost 2-0 to Bolivia on Wednesday as Messi began his suspension.

“(Messi’s ban) is not fair and it doesn’t abide by the rules,” Tapia said. results failing to take the matter seriously.

Astle’s daughter Dawn walked out of a meeting with Taylor because she felt he was evasive when she repeatedly asked him why the PFA had not made more advances regarding the issue over the past 15 years. The exchange was filmed by the BBC.

However, Taylor vigorously defended himself and the PFA.

“I don’t know of another football organization anywhere in the world that has done more than us? If you do, please tell me,” the 72-year-old told Press Association Sport.

“The rest of the world has struggled to get to grips with this, not just us. There is no magic key.

“I feel very offended when people accuse us of a cover-up and say we don’t want to know about the health risks. We do.”

Research into links between soccer and brain damage in later life is thin on the ground.

A recent British study published in the Acta Neuropathologica

journal found the brains of four out of six former players with dementia showed signs of CTE, far in excess of the average rate of 12 percent.