Lionel Messi handed a ridiculous €600 fine for Diego Maradona tribute by the Spanish FA | OneFootball

Football associations are an incredible thing, because you can tell that those in charge don’t really want to do any real work or deal with important issues.

You can see this where big issues like racism and player safety are swept under the carpet, but they are itching to burst into life when there’s a pointless fine to be handed out that leaves them looking ridiculous.

The latest example comes from the Spanish FA after ESPN confirmed that Lionel Messi was fined a whopping €600 for his tribute to Diego Maradona at the weekend.

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They went one step further by sending a fine of €180 in Barcelona’s direction for allowing Messi to reveal a Newell’s Old Boys shirt that paid tribute to Maradona which was underneath his Barca one.

It’s hard to tell what the Spanish FA are hoping to achieve with this because it’s not like fans around the world were lining up to demand action for such an outrageous act, while they’ve just left themselves looking out of touch and incompetent.

The money won’t be an issue to Messi or Barca but it’s the principle of the matter that looks ridiculous, while Messi was also booked for the incident and edges closer to a ban as a result.