Lionel Messi Sanctioned for Paying Tribute to Maradona

Messi will have to pay 600 euros and a fine of 180 euros to Barcelona for his homage to the legend of Argentine soccer.

After Messi's goal against the Osasuna athletic club, he showed a 1993 Newell's Old Boys shirt worn by Maradona.

The Competition Committee of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) sanctioned the Barcelona player, Lionel Messi, for paying tribute to the former Argentine footballer, Diego Armando Maradona, who died last November 25.

Messi took off his Barcelona jersey during the match against Club Atlético Osasuna, after scoring the fourth and last goal with which the Catalonian team achieved the victory. In his celebration, he paid tribute to Maradona by wearing a 1993 Newell's Old Boys jersey that the Argentinean star wore while he was a player at the aforementioned club.

In this sense, the RFEF states that Messi's action is sanctioned based on articles 27 and 130 of the current Disciplinary Code of the Spanish soccer organization.

However, the Committee pointed out that "it is not evident that there is a manifest material error, the only case in which it would be appropriate to set aside the disciplinary consequences of the warning imposed, in the application of articles 27 and 130 of the Disciplinary Code in force."

Messi will have to pay 600 euros (about 725 dollars) and a fine of 180 euros (217 dollars) to Barcelona for his homage to the legend of Argentine soccer.

Meanwhile, Barcelona Club indicated that it is "beyond doubt that this gesture obeys the will of the player to pay a sincere and meaningful tribute to one of the most important legends in the history of soccer, Diego Armando Maradona, who had died days before the match."