Aston Villa goalkeeper Martinez hit with Argentina ban for two controversial incidents

Aston Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez will miss Argentina’s next two World Cup qualifiers after being disciplined by FIFA.

Martinez helped Argentina win Copa America in the summer after his heroics at the 2022 World Cup.

His emergence for the national team has been pivotal in their recent success and ensuring Lionel Messi retires with at least one World Cup winner’s medal.

He found himself in hot water after winning the World Cup in Qatar when he made a lewd gesture with the Golden Glove trophy.

Martinez made the same gesture with the Copa America trophy – which is a lot bigger, by the way – and has this time been disciplined by FIFA.

A statement from the Argentine Football Association confirmed FIFA’s decision to punish the Aston Villa player, which they ‘absolutely disagree’ with.

He has also been punished for slapping a TV camera after losing to Colombia in a World Cup qualifier. A sore winner is also a sore loser, who’d have thought?

The AFA statement read: “Despite the defense made by the player and the Argentine Football Association, the Disciplinary Commission of the governing body of World Football made the following decision:

“Martinez is declared responsible for his offensive behavior and his violation of the principles of fair play (art. 13 CDF).

“It should be noted that the Argentine Football Association expresses its absolute disagreement with the decision taken by the FIFA disciplinary committee.”

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The Villa star will now miss Argentina’s World Cup qualifiers against Venezuela on October 10 and Bolivia on October 16.

The ban does not impact Aston Villa, who will probably be happy that Martinez can get a rest during next month’s international break.

He is in line to start for the Villans against Ipswich Town in the Premier League on Sunday and is also available for next week’s huge Champions League clash at home to Bayern Munich.

Ipswich is obviously their priority and head coach Unai Emery insists playing Bayern next will not distract him or his players.

“We are thinking only about the next match, which is Ipswich,” he said at his pre-match press conference. “I can repeat from the beginning of the season in the pre-season how important every match is that we’re playing.

“The last two years, we got Conference League with a one-point difference with Brentford and last year we got Champions League with a two-point difference to Tottenham.

“One point, two points, three points – we are playing for something in every match we are facing. At the end of the season, we don’t want to remind ourselves of some moments when we weren’t focused on those points.

“We are thinking only about Ipswich and respecting them a lot. We are not thinking about the next match or the next week.”

Emery thinks there is even more to come from his side this season despite an already impressive start.

Villa have won four of their five Premier League games so far as well as enjoying a debut win in the Champions League against Young Boys.

He added: “Some players are in the process and we want to increase our level individually and collectively through them. The process is positive because we are getting points in this way.

“We have to improve a lot of things, individually and collectively.

“The match we played against Wolverhampton was a very good match to analyse deeply how we were playing before in the Champions League as well emotionally.”

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