The president of the Argentine Football Association (AFA) has confirmed that Lionel Messi’s international ban is over, meaning he’ll be available for the national team again.
The South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) slapped a one-match ban on Messi last summer for his controversial sending off against Chile in the Copa America third-place playoff.
The red card came after a clash with Chile’s Gary Medel in the 37th minute of the match. Both men got dismissed, with Messi later claiming the competition had been rigged to favor hosts Brazil.
Although the ban had a very specific condition in that it would have to be a competitive fixture. Therefore, Argentina could count on their captain for friendlies in late 2019 against Brazil and Uruguay.
This had Messi penned down to serve his suspension for Argentina’s World Cup qualifier against Ecuador on October 8 in Buenos Aires.
El Presidente de la @afa, Claudio Tapia, elevó una consulta a @CONMEBOL sobre la sanción que debía cumplir el capitán de @Argentina Lionel Messi ante Ecuador y tras haberse cumplido un año, @agdws le confirmó que la misma ha prescrito y se encuentra disponible para la doble fecha pic.twitter.com/rWcvaMI0fo
— Selección Argentina 🇦🇷 (@Argentina) September 10, 2020
But AFA president Claudio Tapia consulted his CONMEBOL counterpart Alejandro Dominguez over the ban.
The AFA then confirmed on Twitter the statute of limitations had expired. The national team, therefore, can count on Messi for both their qualifiers against Ecuador and Bolivia next month.
The Barcelona skipper will be determined to bring home two sound victories in those games.
At 33, he’s aware the clock is ticking on his career and the 2022 World Cup could be his last chance at winning football’s biggest tournament.
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