Barcelona Criticise Lionel Messi's 'Unfair' 4-Game Argentina Ban Given by FIFA

Barcelona have criticised the four-game international ban given to their star forward Lionel Messi, calling the sanction "unfair." 

The Blaugrana released a statement about the punishment on their official website on Wednesday. "The Club considers the four-match suspension finally imposed on the Argentinian player to be unfair and totally disproportionate," read a section of the bulletin.

Messi was handed the four-match ban on Tuesday less than six hours before Argentina's match with Bolivia in the CONMEBOL FIFA World Cup qualifiers. 

As reported by Jack Bezants of the MailOnline, the 29-year-old is said to have bellowed "f--k off, your mother's c--t" at the assistant referee during last week's match with Chile.

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Barcelona are not the only ones to have given their support to Messi. The president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, also backed the forward ahead of his side's 2-0 win over the Albiceleste:

The Blaugrana have always been unrelenting in their backing for Messi in the past. When the iconic forward was convicted of a tax fraud offence in 2016, the club launched a social media campaign to show their backing to the player including a hashtag of "#WeAreAllLeoMessi."

Although Barcelona are clearly unhappy with the sanctions levied at their star man, Messi's suspension could actually work in their favour.

Indeed, as sports journalist Rafael Hernandez noted, not only will Messi be allowed to rest up a little instead of flying across the world for international duty, there could be knock-on effects that are beneficial to Barcelona:

Argentina, after all, face a massive fight to secure their spot at the 2018 World Cup. They currently sit in fifth place in the CONMEBOL qualifying, which would mean a win in a two-legged playoff would be needed to book their place in the Russia finals.

Even that might be a struggle for Argentina, though. At the moment, manager Edgardo Bauza is struggling to get a tune out of what is a talented squad, with balance lacking in all facets of the field. Finding a way of getting the best from Sergio Aguero, Gonzalo Higuain, Paulo Dybala and Angel Di Maria has been a challenge.

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In truth, Messi has paved over a lot of cracks with his majestic efforts. As noted by Sports Illustrated's Grant Wahl following Bolivia's win, without their star man, Argentina have strung together some poor results:

The ban will allow Messi to focus on club matters in the weeks and months to come, which should help the Blaugrana to a prosperous end to the season.

Barcelona have a fascinating run-in in store, too. They're in second place in La Liga behind rivals Real Madrid, have a two-legged UEFA Champions League quarter-final with Juventus to come and a Copa del Rey final against Alaves.