It is no coincidence that Argentina is currently the most hated team in world football. Argentina’s players are violent, cynical, and repulsive, and if they can’t score a goal against you they will kick you to hell. Here’s an assignment: go through videos of the recently concluded World Cup and look for players grabbing their opponents’ necks, and you will inevitably come across Argentina.
All footballing nations cheat one way or the other – England cheated Portugal in ’66 – but Argentina has a DNA brewed in fraud. It is also no coincidence that the current squad has no Black players. Before rigging football, Argentina first rigged its own population. As I wrote in ‘Argentina and its Copa America clowns’ (July 27, 2024): ‘In 1778, Africans constituted some 37 percent of the population of what is now Argentina, but today they are less than 0.5 percent. Civil wars and disease, deftly exploited by the government, saw to that. If, by 1895, the population of Afro-Argentines was so negligible that the government couldn’t even be bothered to include them in the national census, it was all part of a grand plan.’
When Gianni Infantino, the fraud who runs FIFA, expanded the World Cup to 48 national teams for the 2026 edition, his objective was to manufacture more money and drama. Great. But he clearly wanted to gift the trophy to Argentina, as he had in Qatar. Ah, Qatar. Even Fabrizio Romano, a well-known Messi fanboy, couldn’t hide questions regarding Argentina’s conduct in that tournament. As was reported at the time, Papu Gómez failed an anti-doping test at Sevilla in 2022 before the World Cup, but FIFA played dumb.
Before his father showed up for him, Leo Messi had underwhelming World Cup returns: 1 goal in 2006, 0 goals in 2010, 4 goals in 2014, and 1 goal in 2018. But with Infantino at the helm, he got 7 goals in the 2022 World Cup, five of them penalties. Then at the 2026 World Cup, he got 8 goals at 39 years old. His history is, of course, replete with audacious robberies. He smiled as criminals decorated him with Robert Lewandowski’s Ballon d’Or in 2021. He staged the same stunt with Erling Haaland’s in 2023. History’s most favoured and most protected player wanted another football gold in America, but he came to a brutal reputational end, losing the respect of millions.
To actualise their ignoble objective, Infantino and FIFA had arranged the 2026 World Cup schedule to favour certain teams. Infantino knew how lethal Kylian Mbappé is, and ensured he played in the heat of the day while Argentina got the cooler evening slots. The FIFA president reportedly visited the Argentina camp multiple times – unusual for a sitting FIFA president – and when Spain summoned their Teranga Lions and obliterated Argentina in the final, the celebration skies turned blue. Coincidence? No. Like AFCON final, like World Cup final. Hmmm…
To obtain its first World Cup trophy, Argentina had to stage one of the most audacious frauds football has seen. The year was 1978, and in the second group stage, Brazil and Argentina were both in contention. Brazil appealed for the final matches to be played simultaneously so that neither team would have an unfair advantage. FIFA refused. It scheduled Argentina’s final second-round group match to kick off hours after Brazil’s final game. Brazil beat Poland 3-1, which meant Argentina knew it needed 4 goals to advance. Storming the pitch in Rosario, La Albiceleste then achieved a controversial 6-0 win over Peru. As it turned out, Argentina’s military junta was accused of striking a deal with Peru. The Peruvian players were widely alleged to have been ‘settled’, as we say in Nigeria.
As host nation, Argentina bullied opponents and leveraged influence to reach the final. Per CBC Sports, Raanan Rein, an Israeli professor of Latin American history, said he was ‘100 per cent persuaded’ that Argentina’s military junta influenced the 6-0 rout of Peru. CBS’ verdict: ‘The match is a notorious chapter of World Cup lore and ensured Argentina advanced to the final instead of great rival Brazil.’
If you think that is terrible, then remember Diego Maradona’s infamous ‘Hand of God’ goal against England in Mexico ’86. Maradona lifted the World Cup as the referee miraculously missed Maradona’s stunt. Then came the ‘holy water’ scandal of the 1990 FIFA World Cup Round of 16 match between Argentina and Brazil. During an injury break, Brazilian left-back Branco accepted a water bottle given to him by Argentine staff. Branco did so in the spirit of fair play, but allegations later surfaced that the bottle was laced with tranquillisers. The result: Branco became dizzy and sluggish, and shortly after, Maradona assisted Claudio Caniggia to score the winner for Argentina. Maradona later joked about it on live television, referring to the drink as ‘holy water’. Coach Carlos Bilardo was coy: ‘I’m not saying it didn’t happen.’
Per The Sporting News: ‘Argentina were given a favourable whistle throughout the 2026 World Cup, as they benefited from the most VAR overturns in their favour of any team in the competition, while they were not pegged back by VAR at any point.’ So if you see German legend Toni Kroos saying ‘football won’ during the Spain-Argentina matchup, know that the statement cuts deep. Four years after the holy water incident, when Maradona and Argentina faced the Super Eagles of Nigeria, Maradona tested positive for banned substances. O Argentina!!!
You see, whenever Argentina is accused of fraud, it reaches for spiritual lexicon: ‘Hand of God’, ‘Holy Water’, etc. It is no wonder, then, that Messi is the only footballer widely discussed for using ‘growth hormone treatment’ as a teenager. After an MLS match, the extremely messy footballer was once filmed chasing a referee toward the locker room. Growth hormones? It took Luis Suárez to restrain him. The player has an entitlement mentality that borders on criminality – but that’s typical Argentina. Remember that the Nazis felt comfortable escaping to Argentina after WWII.
Just how can it be a coincidence that out of the 48 teams at the 2026 World Cup, Argentina were the only team not to have a single VAR decision go against them, despite committing many fouls? Other top teams played in the heat of the sun; Argentina played in the cool of the night. Yet against Spain, it became the first team in 60 years without a single shot on target in the first 90 minutes of a World Cup final. Spain had 16 attempts at goal, 11 of them on target. Argentina players, babied all tournament, behaved as if the cup had been promised to them 3,000 years ago.
Anyway, to this day, Paulo Dybala has mocked Ángel Di María for his blatant dive that helped Argentina win in Qatar. Corrupt and rotten to the bone, Infantino deserves to be quartered. By the way, when will FIFA follow CAF’s lead and gift the 2026 World Cup trophy to Argentina?