Written by No, I am not talking about players flopping on the field here.
There was a World Cup qualifying match between Argentina and Brazil on Sunday. The match lasted a little more than seven minutes. The officials called the match and FIFA later stated that the match is suspended until further notice. The match was not stopped due to a weather event, unruly fans, chants, or a threat of some sort. The match was stopped due to what a player thought was a little lie.
It was actually four players who lied on immigration paperwork, stating that they did not spend any time in the United Kingdom during the prior 14-day period. These four Argentinian players marked that they were not in the UK and did not even attempt to quarantine for the required 14 days. They just showed up to play in the qualifying match. They were there to play a simple game of soccer for their country. All four started for their team and played for about seven minutes until the game was stopped by health and law enforcement officials from Brazil.
The Brazilian authorities actually notified the athletes a few hours before the match that they had to leave Brazil immediately and isolate themselves. The Argentinian players, head coach, and others from the federation all chose to not listen to the Brazilian authorities and move forward with the match. When the match was halted, the Argentinian side first acted like they were not aware of what they were told hours before. Messi said it best “Why did they start the game and stop it after five minutes” and “We’ve been here at the stadium for an hour, they could have told us”. Argentina then stated that they knew of the deportation but decided to move forward with the match anyway. Argentina later said that the Brazilian side was fully aware of the issue and agreed to play. And even later, the Argentinian head coach said that Brazil was trying to deport players, hours before the match, possibly to sway the results of the match.
Aside from putting many others’ health at risk, from the time the four Argentinian players got on a plane to the time they set foot on the pitch, they also started a succession of lies and deceit. These lies, that started at the airport in Brazil, will probably continue throughout FIFA’s investigation. What is one small lie on top of another one? If Lionel Scaloni, the Argentina head coach, truly believed that the Brazilian authorities were trying to deport players in order for their side to win, he should have launched a complaint hours before the match and not after hours of him and others in their federation continuously lying.
When will the lies end for Argentina? When will they take ownership of the situation? When will they apologize for potentially putting others’ health at risk and for all of their lies? Only Argentina, South American Football Confederation, and FIFA can answer these questions.