So this final may become the start of another wonderful football rivalry… 
That was absolutely disgusting. I had been pulling for Messi to win a second Cup, but after that display of open support for the fascist Galtiera regime I can’t support them. Nobody who held that banner should be eligible to play in the Final.
Post away and awesome picture down at the Obelisco. my comment was more about the team doing something that is against the FIFA rules and also doing something that was pretty stupid given that passions tend to run high in football matches with the supporters and the opposition team doing something provocative really amps it up.
People on the dope are way more level headed ( well mostly) and quite capable of separating issues
In other political football news, it was reported today that Keir Starmer contacted FIFA to protest a proposed schedule change before the England-Mexico game that would have given the English less time to acclimate to the altitude. There is no way of knowing whether his lobbying had an effect, but FIFA did make the decision he wanted them to in the end.
I’m sure there will now be hundreds of outraged posts from Europeans in this thread about how a politician calling FIFA to lobby for his national team’s interests is The Worst Thing That Has Ever Happened, and has irrevocably tainted this World Cup, and moreover proves that English people don’t have an authentic soccer culture and don’t really understand the game.
(To be clear, I don’t personally think it’s appropriate for politicians to be bothering FIFA, I’m just mocking the massive overreactions to Trump’s phone call in this thread. This does not alter my fundamental opinion that Trump can eat a barrel of dicks)
You are completely misunderstanding that.
If anything the right wing is aghast at that sign of rebellion against Milei’s posture of resigning sovereignty over the islands.
In Argentina saying “Las Malvinas son Argentinas” is a left wing position, Galtieri is hated for trying (and predictably failing, in the process sending innocent boys to die futilely fighting against a world power) to take them by force when the country’s position has always been to get them by diplomatic means.
Is Argentina’s position in that conflict correct? if you look at my posts on the issue you’ll see that I don’t think so, because the islanders don’t want to be Argentines.
But Argentina’s position is also not completely without a basis in international law, and, more importantly, is something deeply deeply felt here, Malvinas is part of our national identity, for good or ill.
So again, you are deeply misunderstanding that flag if you think it in any way reflects support for Galtieri and his dictatorship.
ETA: Non-Argentines tend to think that Argentina suddenly woke up one fine morning in 1982 and decided that the Islands belong to us, when it’s a diplomatic conflict that started between Spain and England as far as the 1700s and Argentina has been protesting English ocupation of the Islands since 1833)
OK, I grant that the situation is more complicated that I realize. But they had a referendum and 99.8% of the islanders voted to stay British. How ignoring the wishes of the people who actually live there is a “left-wing position” is hard for me to understand. And if ignoring the wishes of those people is “part of (y)our national identity, for good or ill”…well, it’s hard for me to see how the “good” part enters into it.
If anything, given that, AIUI, the loss of the war directly contributed to the downfall of the fascist regime, it seems like left-wing Argentines should be grateful to Britain and strongly support British sovereignty over the Falklands.
Regardless of the merits of their position, the banner clearly violated FIFA policy. Suspending players for the Final might be excessive, but a trivial fine doesn’t seem at all appropriate to the magnitude of the offense. We really don’t want to set a trend in which winning a soccer match is perceived as an opportunity to air your geopolitical grievances.
We can discuss all that in another thread if you like, because it’s a long and complex story.
This is probably completely correct, but you’ll have to excuse me if I don’t want to see the first symbol of rebellion against Milei in the national team severely punished.
And that’s a part of the problem–besides the shit-stirring of the international politics, it’s also bringing up Argentinian domestic politics. Poor form and if Argentina loses the final, might politicize the loss.
Editing to add:
from my understanding from your previous posts, it’s kind of breaking the “leave your politics behind” vibe that Argentines love about soccer.
Yes, we should probably drop this. I respect your position even if I don’t fully understand it.
On a potentially less controversial subject: Is anyone willing to defend the existence of the third-place game? Does anyone actually care about the outcome? I get that it made sense when teams traveled to the Cup by ocean liner and nobody had the opportunity to watch their national team play at all unless they were physically in the stadium, but it seems really unnecessary now.
Nah, win or lose, this national team, after winning in Qatar and defeating England (with the Diego-honored score of 2-1! coming from behind!) is totally above politics.
ETA: or more exactly, politics is important but football is existential.
You’ll notice that Argentina has reached six semifinals and never ever lost one, this is not because we want to win the World Cup, is because we’d rather kill ourselves and our families than play that game.
As the initiator of the thread I’ve enjoyed the side paths, I’m learning a lot!, but I don’t want anyone politically upset either.
I would enjoy explaining the issue, but it would totally overtake this thread, I’ll think about starting one about it, the only thing that stops me from doing that is the fear of finger cramps, imagine that it would start something like “So, in 1492 Christopher Columbus…” with detours into de-colonization doctrines, the Napoleonic Wars, National Identity in young countries, U.S. interventions in Latin America, the meat industry, the British Empire…
It’s more complex because after Maradona and the game against England in 1986 Football became inextricable from the Malvinas issue.
This talk about what the players were wearing reminds me of the ban of the jersey that the Haitian’s were originally going to wear (already referred to in this thread). In that case it seemed excessive because technically every country’s flag is a political statement, as is the creation of any nation.
As to the Maradona England goal, it is even referred to in the song Latino America by Calle 13:
Soy Maradona contra Inglaterra anotándote dos goles
The song is essentially an ode to Latin America using the first person as the voice of the region, and the above says: I am Maradona scoring two goals against England. I was surprised to hear that when I first the song eons ago, but it did make smile because soccer is definitely an intrinsic part of the region.
//i\\
I’d say we stick to the fifa aspect of the banner display and save the other stuff for Frodos impending thread , he needs something to distract him between now and Sunday 
For the third place game I’d imagine the clubs are pleading with the national teams managers to not play their stars for fear of injury. So it will be an opportunity for those who didn’t get much play in the tournament ( not to say that they are not good players)
It’s also in Miami in an open air stadium, so I don’t see anyone particularly pushing through the heat , it’s only 2 million difference in prize money between 3rd and 4th place ( 28 vs 30) although no idea how that may impact the players personally.
Maybe they will be having ice cold beer or margaritas for the hydration breaks.
I’ve never seen that in football, I think the only sport that does this, already celebrating during the running competition with alcohol, are the riders in the Tour de France, drinking champagne on their way to Paris on the final stage.
I wasn’t being serious, but I did not know about the TdF and the champers , that’s awesome.
It’s a tradition.
ETA: and to explain my detour from football, I’m almost as much fanatical about cycling and the TdF as about football, so for the last two weeks, I have been in Nirvana, TdF in the afternoons and football in the evenings…
Here’s another distraction to contemplate between now and Sunday.
In case you’ve been wondering (and who hasn’t?) how 11 NFL stadiums managed to transform their fields from American football turf to World Cup grass, here’s a video that you may find interesting. I certainly did, anyway.
