Lionel Messi has picked up five yellow cards for Inter Miami this MLS season. However, a little-known special MLS rule spares the 39-year-old from what would normally be a suspension.
Lionel Messi has only missed three competitive matches in his career due to a yellow card suspension. On Thursday, it looked as though it was to happen again. The Inter Miami superstar was shown his fifth yellow card of the season shortly before half-time in the reigning champions’ home match against FC Cincinnati (2–2). In football, this is usually synonymous with a one-match ban. Yet Messi is fully eligible to play in Miami’s away match against the New England Revolution on Sunday (local time, 1 am CET) in Boston.
Anyone who suspects this is down to a ‘star bonus’ for the 2022 World Cup winner is mistaken. The fact that Messi does not have to serve a suspension despite his fifth booking is down to the specific regulations of the MLS. Under these rules, a player has a yellow card deducted from their tally if they have not been booked in five consecutive matches. This special rule can be applied up to three times per player during the MLS regular season.
Yellow cards are reset for the play-offs
Messi, who has been playing for Inter Miami for more than three years and now captains the team, has already managed two separate runs of five matches without a booking this season. As reported by The Athletic, two yellow cards have therefore already been removed from the 39-year-old’s card tally. By this reckoning, the yellow card against Cincinnati was not his fifth, but only his third.
With just two matchdays remaining in the regular season, Messi’s chances of avoiding another yellow-card suspension look good. For the play-offs – which Miami, currently third in the table, have already secured a place in – all players’ booking tallies will be reset to zero anyway. Messi, who is currently the MLS’s top scorer with 25 goals in 29 appearances, aims to defend last season’s championship title with Inter Miami. A suspension for the superstar would be very inconvenient at this stage.