Dele Alli has risked disciplinary action from Fifa after cameras caught him making a one-finger salute, sparking suggestions it had been directed at the referee, Clément Turpin, late in England’s 2-1 World Cup qualifying victory over Slovakia.
The Tottenham midfielder was visibly frustrated after the official waved away his appeals for a free-kick following a foul by Martin Skrtel on the edge of the Slovakia box 13 minutes from time. Turpin had his back turned at the time and subsequently penalised Jordan Henderson for a foul on the other side of the pitch, failing to notice Alli’s gesture, though world football’s governing body may still choose to scrutinise the incident.
Gareth Southgate, unaware of Alli’s reaction during the game, spoke to the player after the final whistle with the midfielder suggesting he had actually been aiming the gesture at his former Tottenham team-mate Kyle Walker.
“I’ve not seen it but I’ve been made aware of it,” the England manager said. “Kyle and Dele were mucking about, and Dele’s made a gesture towards Kyle. I don’t know what the angle picked up by the camera is, so I don’t know if that is clear. The pair of them have a strange way of communicating but that’s what they’ve said when it’s been raised.”
Alli later posted on Twitter insisting that had indeed been the reason for the salute. “Just to clarify, the gesture tonight was a joke between me and my good friend Kyle Walker! Apologies for any offence caused! Great win 2nite,” he wrote.
Fifa would determine any sanction applicable and have applied bans in the past for abuse of officials by players. The highest profile was arguably Lionel Messi, who was initially banned for four matches and fined 10,000 Swiss francs (£8,100) for supposedly “having directed insulting words” at an assistant referee during Argentina’s World Cup qualifying game against Chile in March, an offence which had not accrued a card at the time. However, having sat out the first match against Bolivia, he had the suspension overturned on appeal due to a lack of evidence.
England have two qualifying fixtures remaining – against Slovenia and Lithuania – and need only two points to qualify for the tournament in Russia following Monday’s success, a win inspired by the excellent Marcus Rashford. The 19-year-old forward recovered from an early mistake, upon which Slovakia capitalised to open the scoring, to provide an assist for Eric Dier’s equaliser and then belt home a fine winner to register his first goal at Wembley for his country on his 11th cap.
“Having worked with him, he’s such a mature character,” Southgate said. “The start [he made] surprised me. But the switch of wings was important as well. It allowed him a slightly different defensive role, and he adapted very well to that. His maturity is excellent. You look at him and he’s never in awe of the occasion. He doesn’t have any fear of anything.. I don’t think the team did, either, and responded well. He’s still a work in progress as we saw at the beginning of the game but he’s getting stronger. His impact, in taking people on and getting us up the pitch in the counter-attack, was huge. He had a huge impact on the game.”