Leandro Paredes had already been talking publicly about whether he wanted to stay with Argentina long before FIFA sat down to punish him. His timing was his own; he asked for a slow decision and a long conversation. On 21 August, the disciplinary committee took a large piece of that decision away from him.

FIFA banned Paredes for 10 international matches and fined him $90,000 for his role in the confrontation that erupted after the World Cup final, Al Jazeera reported. Nahuel Molina received seven matches and the same fine, Thiago Almada was banned for one match and Roberto Ayala, an assistant on Lionel Scaloni’s staff, was banned for three. The players were charged with acts equivalent to assault.

Four days after Argentina lost the 19 July final 1-0 to Spain in East Rutherford, New Jersey, Paredes returned to Boca Juniors and played 90 minutes of a 1-0 Copa Sudamericana playoff win over Chile’s O’Higgins. Speaking in the mixed zone afterwards, he said he did not know if he had it in him to keep going.

“I don’t know if I’m ready to continue. It’s a process, you have to digest it, think about it. You shouldn’t take hasty decisions, but it has to be talked about.”

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He said the defeat would sit with him for a long time.

“Losing the final of the World Cup is going to hurt for a long time because we were close again.”

Any decision, he added, would go through Scaloni. Speaking at the same mixed zone, he said the group would need time before anyone landed on anything.

“You have to talk with the coach and take decisions calmly.”

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Ten matches, roughly a year off the calendar

Ten games covers most of a full Argentina international calendar. If the ban stands, Paredes would be out of the national team until around mid-2027, an effective one-year expulsion for the Boca captain and a hard limit imposed on the decision he wanted to take on his own terms.

FIFA said Paredes had grabbed Spain defender Eric Garcia by the throat and pushed midfielder Gavi to the ground during the brawl that broke out on the pitch after Spain’s 1-0 win. Argentina were separately fined $110,000 for World Cup incidents and ordered to spend $100,000 on anti-racism programs.

Paredes hit back at the ruling within hours, accusing FIFA of protecting the Spanish players. In comments carried by Yardbarker, he said he had been punished for defending himself.

“Yes, we can see the favoritism given to the Spanish players by the officials and FIFA. I get 10 games ban and $90,000 after I defended myself.”

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“Well, if reverse was the case, everyone will say FIFA is helping Argentina but they are all mute now.”

AFA to appeal, CAS on the table

The Argentine Football Association plans to challenge the sanctions at FIFA’s Appeals Committee and, if that fails, at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). Legal adviser Andrés Patón Urich, in comments reported by Sports Illustrated, said the punishment was heavier than the federation had expected.

“We don’t like the sanctions; we knew there would be some, but we expected less.”

The AFA has 10 days to request the grounds of the ruling and file its appeal. Urich said the federation will submit a frame-by-frame analysis of the incident and point to earlier cases where comparable clashes drew shorter bans, including the four-match qualifier suspension handed to Lionel Messi in 2018, which was later cut down.

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Paredes, when he spoke after the Boca match, framed the question as one that would take a long time to answer.

“It’s going to be a matter of many of us weighing up whether to continue or not. It’s going to be very hard to keep this level, to keep the group working the way it has. There’s a lot to put on the scale.”

Whether he still wants to play for Argentina in mid-2027, when the ban would end, is the question he has already said he is not ready to answer.

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