The World Cup may be over in North America but its aftermath continues in the world at large and nor do football issues end with the tournament here. Disappointing as the final was in more than one sense, Argentines are still trying to digest their mixed feelings between a sensation of anti-climax and a residual pride and gratitude.
Meanwhile the investigation into the misallocation of funds by AFA Argentine Football Association on hold during the World Cup resumes, at least in the United States since there are also crosscurrents over this issue here. Presidential chief-of-staff Karina Milei, so often the decisive government figure on the political front, seems almost a split personality when it comes to AFA – the driving force in launching this investigation late last year in conjunction with then Security Minister Patricia Bullrich (not least because the charges that she collected three percent kickbacks within the corruption scandal of the now dissolved ANDIS national disability agency originated in the exposé of a digital streaming channel owned by AFA treasurer Pablo Toviggino), she installed as Justice Minister early this year Juan Bautista Mahiques, closely linked to AFA.
The team returned to nationwide acclaim early this week with no trace of any “heads must roll” outcry despite the acute frustration of last Sunday’s lame performance while elsewhere in the world murmurs casting the heroes as villains were perhaps exaggerated by local sensitivities. Some of this negative commentary was based on an alleged Argentine racism excluding coloured players from the team. Such critics should be invited to name the black footballers excluded while several faces in Lionel Scaloni’s squad of 26 have features of clearly indigenous origin – the Czech World Cup team consisted 100 percent of white Slavs and yet nobody was accusing Prague of racism, nor should they. But perhaps a more potent fuel for blasting Argentina comes from Javier Milei being the self-styled “most Zionist president in the world” – the backlash from Donald Trump’s messy stop-go war with Iran and the Palestinian sympathies of many sectors in many countries has found an outlet at the expense of Argentina’s football heroes.
The injustice of some criticisms should not justify going to the other extreme of a fanatical nationalism insisting that there is nothing to reproach. Unaccustomed to defeat in the last four years, the players were bad losers last Sunday – turning their backs on the victors in the best of cases and physically assaulting them in the worst. Unfurling the Malvinas banner after the epic semi-final victory over England may have been politically legitimate as responding to a national sentiment but it was a clear and conscious violation of FIFA rules.
Beyond such fault-finding, it is a paradox that despite the admiration across the political spectrum for the inspiring model of a team going the full distance in a World Cup, neither of the two main political currents is entirely comfortable with the style and values of that model. For libertarians Scaloni’s humble moderation and the professionalism of the team captained by Lionel Messi are at all odds with the irate rhetoric of a government idealising amateur outsiders. Kirchnerite populism will also see the team as an example of meritocracy and silent effort against their drive to level down and gift benefits – a triumph of common sense offering a healthier nationalism than their understanding of the word, showing that great things are possible. Above all, this World Cup has demonstrated that final victory is not everything – that finding the path is also valuable.
Is there life after football? The most obvious answer is: “It’s the economy, stupid” and that does not smile on a Milei without a “fourth star” to boast. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) continues to forecast 3.5 percent growth for Argentina this year but it is now more than half over with the June growth figure posted last Wednesday as 0.2 percent up from mid-2025 while 0.5 percent down from last May. Hard to see any end to the stagnation with the success of driving inflation below two percent last month being at the expense of growth. An underperforming economy is hurting revenues with tax cuts and breaks boosting the downward trickle, making the fiscal surplus harder to sustain and depleting funds for debt payments – a situation highly unlikely to receive any assistance next time round from a Trump facing an uphill battle against midterm defeat.
But it will probably take the rest of the month to absorb the intense experience of the World Cup fully.
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