Dele Alli has been banned for one international match for making an offensive gesture during England’s World Cup qualifying win over Slovakia at Wembley this month. Alli has also been fined 5,000 Swiss francs (£3,850), although Fifa’s disciplinary committee said it accepted the gesture had not been aimed at the referee.

A Fifa spokesperson said: “Following the incident that occurred during the match between England and Slovakia on 4 September 2017, Dele Alli has been sanctioned with a suspension for one official match and a fine of 5,000 Swiss francs for making an offensive and unsporting gesture.

“Although the disciplinary committee was not convinced that the player directed the gesture at the referee, and regardless of whether it was allegedly directed at a team-mate, it did consider such gesture to be offensive and unsporting and therefore it amounted to a violation of article 57 of the Fifa disciplinary code.”

Television footage showed the 21-year-old raising his middle finger shortly after a collision with Martin Skrtel but the player claimed after the match it was aimed at his team-mate Kyle Walker rather than the referee, Clément Turpin, another official or any Slovakia player.

Alli will miss next Thursday’s game against Slovenia at Wembley as England look to seal their place at the 2018 World Cup but he could return for the final group game in Lithuania next Sunday.

Gareth Southgate had included Alli in his 26-man England squad before the suspension was announced, and the England manager said on Thursday he hoped the Tottenham midfielder would learn from his mistake.

“I’ve had a good chat with Dele about a lot of different things but the biggest disappointment for him is to miss football,” Southgate told the FA’s official website. “So the upshot of all of this is that he recognises the responsibility and it’s important for him and us that he’s available for games which he wants to play.

“He’s a young player, a young man and young people are going to make mistakes – old people make plenty of mistakes. For certain, he knows something like what happened that night won’t happen again.”