FIFA reject Spain request again as Gavi suspension remains in place

FIFA’s Appeal Committee has rejected a second request from the Spanish Football Federation to suspend the one-match ban imposed on Barcelona midfielder Gavi.

The suspension relates to incidents during the World Cup final and means Spain coach Luis de la Fuente will be unable to select Gavi for the team’s opening Nations League match if he includes him in the squad announced on Friday.

Spain are expected to name a larger-than-usual squad because they face several fixtures within a two-week period. However, even if Gavi is called up, he will not be available for the match against England in London on 26 September.

The fixture is considered an important early test in Spain’s qualifying campaign. De la Fuente will instead have to wait until the second match, against Croatia in Spain on 29 September, before Gavi can potentially return.

The decision follows an earlier ruling by FIFA’s Disciplinary Committee, which rejected an appeal against the punishment submitted by the Spanish federation. The case arose from an incident involving Gavi and Argentina midfielder Leandro Paredes.

Paredes was also sanctioned, receiving a 10-match suspension after his assault on Barcelona defender Eric Garcia.

Because a one-match suspension cannot be appealed directly, the Spanish federation subsequently took its case to FIFA’s Appeal Committee. Rather than contesting the ban itself, it asked for the punishment to be suspended and placed under a one-year probation period.

Spain based its request on the precedent of United States forward Folarin Balogun, who was sent off against Bosnia and Herzegovina at the 2026 World Cup. Balogun received a one-match suspension, but FIFA unusually decided to suspend its implementation for one year.

The Spanish federation had hoped the same approach would be applied to Gavi. FIFA has now rejected that appeal, leaving the Barcelona player’s one-match suspension unchanged and ruling him out of the meeting with England.