Barcelona are facing a fine of up to €3,000 after Lionel Messi took off his shirt to reveal a tribute to his hero, Diego Maradona, in Sunday’s 4-0 win over Osasuna.
Messi slotted home Barca’s fourth goal on the night and took his shirt off to reveal he was wearing one of Maradona’s old shirts from his time with Newell’s Old Boys in Argentina, pointing to the number ten on the back as a tribute.
The tribute was marred soon after as referee Mateu Lahoz showed Messi a yellow card for his celebration. It goes against FIFA’s rules, which state that players cannot lift up or remove their shirt to display any kind of message during a game.
Lahoz was clearly unhappy to have to caution Messi for his tribute to his fallen icon, but he did his best to rectify the situation by immortalising the incident in his match report.
Having fallen to a 1-0 loss to Atletico Madrid last time out, Barcelona romped to a victory here thanks to goals from Messi, Martin Braithwaite, Philippe Coutinho and a ridiculous strike from Antoine Griezmann.
The win carried Barcelona up to seventh in La Liga, and Ronald Koeman’s side now sit ten points behind leaders Real Sociedad with two games in hand.
