Spanish captain Irene Paredes will be suspended from their opening match at the UEFA Women’s Euro against Portugal on Thursday as a result of an incident a year ago.

The FC Barcelona defender will not be eligible to play as she serves the second of a two-game suspension for a straight red card she incurred in a match away to Czechia last July. Paredes was sent off for dangerous play.

In their rulings for 17 and 24 July 2024, the UEFA Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Body (CEDB) later increased the automatic one-game suspension to two games for what was deemed as “serious rough play” under Article 15.1(d) of their Disciplinary Code.

The suspension was for two “UEFA representative team competition matches”. Paredes has subsequently played in the 2025 UEFA Women’s Nations League but the second match of the two-game ban has instead carried over into the first game of the UEFA Women’s Euro beginning this week.

If Paredes had been suspended as a result of two yellow cards during the qualifiers, it would not have been carried forward under Article 63.04(c) of the competition regulations which state they “expire on completion of the European Qualifiers phase. They are not carried forward to the UEFA Women’s EURO 2025.”

During the finals tournament, where the winners will play a maximum of six matches, any player who receive two yellow cards in the opening four games will be suspended from playing in the next match. All cautions will be wiped out at the end of the quarter-finals, meaning every player goes into the semi-finals with a disciplinary clean slate.

The match in Chomutov last July was the fifth of Spain’s six games during qualifying for the UEFA Women’s Euro. Spain had already secured their place in the finals ahead of the match. Nonetheless they named a strong line-up in preparation for their attempt to win a Gold Medal at the Paris 2024 Women’s Olympic Football Tournament.

Despite taking the lead through Aitana Bonmatí, they fell behind following two Czechia goals either side of half-time. In the 70th minute, Paredes challenged for the ball with Kateřina Svitková with her foot raised dangerously high. She was shown a straight red card by referee Riem Hussein.

Paredes therefore missed the final qualifying game at home against Belgium and now will serve the second game of her suspension when Spain begin their attempt to add the European title to their world and UEFA Nations League titles. She is the only player among the 16 squads who is ineligible to play in the first set of matches in the competition which begins tomorrow.

Last week Spanish women’s national head team coach Montse Tomé named Paredes as one of her five “captains” in the squad alongside Alexia Putellas, Aitana Bonmatí, Olga Carmona and Mariona Caldentey. The five leaders of the team were selected jointly by Tomé and the rest of the squad.

Having lost the captaincy to Olga Carmona before their victory at the Women’s World Cup, Paredes was this time selected as principal captain, and the wearer of the armband on the field. This role will now be ceded to another in her absence on Thursday.

The presence of another of the captains in the starting line-up against Portugal is also in question. On Friday night, the two-time reigning Ballon D’Or winner, Aitana Bonmatí, was omitted from Spain’s team for their final warm-up game at home to Japan. It was later revealed that she had been diagnosed with viral meningitis.

Two days later she was discharged from hospital and on Monday night Aitana joined the rest of her team-mates at their base camp in Lausanne a day after the rest of the squad flew into Switzerland. Aitana trained with the rest of the squad yesterday but her ability to play the full match on Thursday after such a recent diagnosis must be questioned.