GO DEEPER
Football’s silence over Argentina’s racist chanting is deafening and damning
Garro added that Argentine Football Association (AFA) president Claudio Tapia should also express regret for what has become an international scandal that is tarnishing the Copa America triumph. Hours after Garro’s statement, Argentina’s president Javier Milei fired Garro.
“The office of the president announces that no government can tell the world champion and two-time South American champion Argentina national team or any citizen, what to say,” a post on X read. “Thus, Julio Garro is no longer the undersecretary of sport.”
The chant, introduced by some Argentine fans before the World Cup final against France in 2022, is racist and transphobic.
Globally, discussion around Argentina’s record 16th Copa America title has halted. The video turned a spotlight onto this Argentina team in a much different way to what it had been like in their month-long tour, when fans and media fawned over a team chasing history.
Now, Argentina’s most recent title is mired in controversy.
Throughout their Copa America run, Argentina, and especially Messi, conjured a fanatical following throughout the United States. Fans followed them from city to city, scouring hotel hallways and lobbies and surrounding the team bus. Press boxes and media events were filled with journalists and admirers.
In Atlanta, the elevator at the team hotel would stop at the ninth floor on nearly every journey, as two young boys in Argentina jerseys awaited, shirts and pens in their hands, hoping to catch a player going up or down from their room. Fans flooded into the hotel gym on the morning of their group-stage match against Canada, as Argentina’s coaches, including assistant Pablo Aimar and Scaloni, worked out on Peloton bikes.
One viral clip showed fans who happened to share the same suite entrance as Messi in Houston. In the video, the fans watched through the peephole as Messi emerged, then chased after him into the hallway where multiple fans were waiting and a security guard blocked people as Messi waited for an elevator.
Outside on the street of every city, fans from around the world surrounded the team bus, from Washington D.C. to Chicago, then on to Atlanta, New Jersey, Houston and Coral Gables in Miami. Blue police lights and road blocks were telltale signs that Argentina was coming, as authorities struggled to find ways to contain the Beatles-like crowds.
There was no escaping those levels of fanaticism, even in media areas.
There is a difference in the culture around press coverage. In many countries, fandom is now a large part of covering a team, especially at international tournaments. While American and European media insist on the appearance, at least, of impartiality, press boxes at global tournaments are different. At the Copa America, that was felt during the national anthem, which media members often sang loudly, and during the game, as they shouted, cheered and clapped after goals or exciting moments of play.
After each match, there was a rush toward the mixed zone. The coach’s press conference is an important part of any post-match routine, but the mixed zone is like an exclusive VIP experience with the world’s best footballers. It is where reporters, separated by waist-high metal safety barriers, interact closely with the players. An Argentina mixed zone is like standing in the front row at a rock concert.
The mixed zone has always featured a combination of seasoned journalists from major international outlets and local reporters that represent small regional television and radio stations. Today, though, social media content creators from around the world litter the area. Many of them wear their country’s national team jersey, enough so that CONMEBOL issued a request for the final asking credentialed media not to wear team jerseys at Hard Rock Stadium.
Star-struck bloggers take selfies with passing players, ignoring the tournament’s regulations against such behavior. They are fans with press credentials. Messi, Emiliano Martinez, Angel Di Maria and Rodrigo De Paul were among the most sought-after Argentina players.
One person in the mixed zone in Houston rolled up his pant leg as he strolled in to make visible a calf tattoo he had in honor of Argentina’s World Cup triumph in Qatar. When Messi sat out Argentina’s match against Peru in Miami, one Argentine influencer applied for a photographer’s credential so they could take video selfies with Messi as he sat on the bench.
In New Jersey, as Messi made his way through the MetLife Stadium mixed zone, carefully escorted by New Jersey State Troopers, the throng of reporters scurried into position, their arms outstretched with microphones or cell phone recorders. Reporters yelled, “Leo! Leo! Leo!” to get Messi’s attention as they jockeyed for position before the media scrum. The shouts grew louder as he zigzagged his way through the man-made maze. After multiple stops along the way, Messi was nearing the stadium exit.
“Leo, if you sign it I’ll tattoo it!,” shouted Martin Cividino as he held out a black pen. According to his social media, Cividino is a television and radio producer in Argentina and the CEO of an upstart streaming channel. Messi smiled and graciously signed Cividino’s arm. “Gracias! Te amo Leo!” (Thank you! I love you Leo!), Cividino said in awe.
The next day, he followed up on his promise.
Ni en el mejor de los sueños me imaginé esto, escribo esto y sigo temblando, te amo Lionel Messi me voy directo a tatuarmelo ya 😱🤯#messi #copaamerica #argentina #chile pic.twitter.com/Ev8cEA6j5V
— Tincho Cividino (@martincividino) June 26, 2024
Another reporter stuck his hand out toward Messi as he strolled through the mixed zone. After Messi tapped his hand, the reporter turned to his colleague in disbelief. “I can’t believe it. He touched my hand.”
Fernandez is more of a quiet contributor. He was always jovial and wide-smiled as he passed through the mixed zone, rarely stopping to give an interview. At 23, Fernandez knows his place on the team, but now the focus is squarely on him.
“Argentinians are not racist,” the country’s men’s Olympics coach Javier Mascherano told AFP in Paris on Wednesday. Argentina will begin their quest for a gold medal on July 24 versus Morocco.
“I know Enzo,” Mascherano added. “He’s a great person and he doesn’t have any issues regarding that. If anything, Argentina is a completely inclusive country. People from all over the world live in Argentina and are treated well.”
Mascherano, 40, a former central midfielder with Argentina, said that the incident with Fernandez has been taken out of context. “Sometimes one has to understand the culture of each country and know that what is perceived as a joke can be misinterpreted in other places,” he said. “Enzo apologized on social media. Sometimes people try to make things bigger than they are.”
For most of the Copa tournament, up until Fernandez flipped on his Instagram live on that bus, Argentina was in a dreamland.
Messi, previously tortured by failure at the international level, was smiling again in an Argentina shirt. The relationship between the Argentine press and the team has also come a long way. To be frank, before 2021, Argentina teams were deemed losers and underachievers. No titles in 28 years.
It was a stark contrast from this summer’s adulation. The players’ stardom served as a shield to criticism from the press. Messi and his teammates were often asked, “What is your message to the people of Argentina?”, as if they were politicians rather than footballers. The players obliged because they know that in Argentina, where football content is consumed daily, their one-to-two-minute mixed zone interviews would become viral reels on Instagram.
Days after Fernandez’s video spread around the world, as the shine of Argentina’s glorious run began to dim, that shield had not completely cracked.
Amid the fallout of the racist chant, Argentine outlets continued to share images and videos that celebrated the Copa America champions. It felt intentional as the conversation around this team outside of Argentina had taken a drastic turn. On Wednesday, Argentina’s vice-president Victoria Villarruel backed Fernandez on social media with a pro-nationalistic statement.
“Argentina is a free and sovereign nation,” Villarruel wrote. “We never had colonies or second (class) citizens. We never imposed our way of life on anyone. But we won’t tolerate the same happening to us. No colonizing country is going to intimidate us because of a football chant or for stating truths that one doesn’t want to admit to. Stop simulating indignation, hypocrisies. Enzo, I support you. Messi, thank you for everything!”
After the victory over Colombia on Sunday, reporters stood inside the Hard Rock Stadium mixed zone for two hours, waiting for Argentina’s players to pass through. They never showed up. Perhaps it was a message to tournament organizer CONMEBOL after the near-tragic events of the final in Miami. The players’ families lived through a horrendous experience, as did thousands of other fans, as they entered the stadium.
After securing their second-straight Copa America title and cementing their legacy as the best-ever Argentina team, the players avoided the multitude of reporters and went straight to the team bus. There were no selfies to be had, no more interviews or autographs.
Instead, they boarded, turned their cameras on themselves and changed the conversation about this team.
(Top photo: Omar Vega/Getty Images)
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Publish date : 2024-07-18 13:00:00
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