Cristiano Ronaldo avoids World Cup suspension as FIFA grants 'one-year probation period'

Cristiano Ronaldo has avoided a suspension that would have seen him miss the start of the 2026 World Cup, thanks to FIFA's decision to suspend the rest of his suspension for the red card he was shown in Portugal’s penultimate qualifier earlier this month.

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Ronaldo missed Portugal's last game of World Cup qualifying — a 9-1 victory over Armenia — and would otherwise miss the next two game's of official World Cup competition: that is, next summer's World Cup, which will almost certainly be his last tournament at the age of 41. FIFA explained their decision as such:

"In line with article 27 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code, the serving of the two remaining matches has been suspended under a one-year probation period.

“If Cristiano Ronaldo commits another infringement of a similar nature and gravity during the probationary period, the suspension set out in the disciplinary decision shall be deemed automatically revoked and the remaining two matches must be served immediately at the next official match(es) of the Portuguese representative team."

FIFA’s regulations state that any suspensions in qualification matches would carry over to the final competition.

Cristiano Ronaldo red card vs Ireland: What did Portugal star do?

FULL STORY — Nov. 14

Portugal were already trailing 2-0 but had a free kick in a promising area when Ronaldo was jockeying for position with Ireland back O'Shea. Ronaldo took umbrage with O'Shea's hands to his back and threw his elbow between the Irish defender's shoulder blades.

O'Shea hit the deck and Ronaldo was shown a yellow card, then pantomiming the shove to referee Glenn Nyberg and balling his fists around his eyes at the defender to mimic tears.

The Video Assistant Referee was Pol van Boekel. He sent Nyberg to the pitch side monitor where the offense was upgraded to a red.