“Argentina is the enemy in France.” The headline of Clarionhistorically the Argentine newspaper with the largest circulation, expressed a widespread feeling in the South American country. Argentines feel persecuted at the Paris Games. Victims of a conspiracy. Condemned to suffer in a territory of people offended by the defeat in the World Cup final in Qatar, where Emiliano Martínez, the Argentine goalkeeper, mocked Mbappé. Subjected to dark reprisals after Enzo Fernández and his teammates celebrated, without reason, with racist chants against African immigrants in France, Argentina’s victory in the Copa América that ended two weeks ago.
The first day of Olympic competitions on Wednesday fuelled national suspicions with two noisy episodes. While at the Stade de France the French fans did not stop whistling the Pumas in the rugby sevens tournament, in Saint-Étienne, more than 500 kilometres from Paris, the VAR disallowed a goal for the Argentine football team two hours after the match had been suspended with a 2-2 draw following seven pitch invasions. A record for VAR and a record for invasions prior to Morocco’s 1-2 victory.
“There were 40,000 people on the pitch and 39,500 were against us. After all, we are in a country that is what it is and we are Argentina,” said goalkeeper Gerónimo Rulli, who was particularly affected by the throwing of bottles and other objects from the back of the stands.
“It’s the biggest circus I’ve ever seen in my life,” said Javier Mascherano, the Argentine coach, who saw Cristian Medina score the 2-2 in the 106th minute of an endless extra time that only ended when the players, on their own initiative, left the field to avoid harassment from the public, who threw objects at them and jumped on the field incessantly to get in the way. selfies.
“They never told us that the play was being reviewed [del gol de Medina]“The official Paris 2024 website posted the score at 2-2. The match was called off for safety reasons. The captains decided not to play. At no point did they talk to us about a goal review. What happened on the pitch was a scandal. This is not a local tournament. How are they going to stop the match seven times for pitch invasion? After the second or third invasion, a decision has to be made. It’s the Olympic Games! Seven times people entered the pitch! We don’t expect them to benefit us, far from it; but we don’t want to be taken for a ride like we were today either.”
“That was a scandal!” declared an official of the International Olympic Committee, who preferred to remain anonymous, on Wednesday. He had just watched Argentina-Morocco on television, probably the most aberrant football match to have taken place in a major international championship this century. The match, which opened the Games, was scheduled for the Geoffroy-Guichard stadium in Saint-Etienne, one of the most remote venues available, as befits a sport without Olympic pedigree. The hesitations of the referee, the Swede Glenn Nyberg, apparently overwhelmed by events, added to the chaos.
The 30,000-odd Moroccan fans who had gathered there booed loudly from the moment the opponent’s anthem was played. But when the match was over, Bilal el-Khannouss, a Moroccan midfielder for Genk, expressed a feeling that was widespread among his fellow countrymen: the match was unpleasant even for the winners. “These things should not happen,” lamented Bilal. “An additional 15 minutes followed by almost two hours of suspension and waiting in the changing rooms… The referee and the police should have taken a decision much earlier.”
The match was only restarted for two minutes, enough time for Glenn Nyberg to rule out Medina’s goal for being offside on the VAR’s recommendation. It was the culmination of an unprecedented evening that the organisers say they will investigate. “The match between Argentina and Morocco had to be abandoned due to the pitch invasion by a small group of people,” a spokesperson for the organising committee said on Thursday. “We are working with the stakeholders to understand the causes and identify the actions to be taken.”
Mascherano, meanwhile, did not hold back his frustration on leaving Saint-Étienne, adding fuel to the bonfire of Argentina’s national sense of persecution. “Yesterday they came into training and robbed us,” the coach said, referring to the practice his team completed on Tuesday. “Thiago Almada was missing rings and a watch. We didn’t want to say anything. At the Olympic Games!”
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