Soccer, Sports and Politics - Part Deux

Yes. Paredes stole it, gave it to Lautaro, back to Paredes to Lo Celso back to Lautaro for the score.

And that was the difference. Colombia was staying with us for most of the game, they are an excellent team, but their subs simply couldn't keep up with our subs. The Colombian player who lost the ball to Paredes, Juanfer Quinteros, also came in at around the same time, so you can say four subs were involved in the goal.

 

Seriously, what else could go wrong for Conmebol and Copa America?

Good thing it’s over!

https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_...eration-president-arrested-copa-america-final

 

I wanted to address this issue, because unfortunately this has been a part of Argentine futbol since I was a kid. I remember going to the stadium as a child in the late 60s and early 70s and we always had those types of chants that included racist, xenophobic, homophobic, and other types of similarly reprehensible language.

I remember one time I went to the stadium with friends when I was about eight, and later when I got home I started singing an anti-semitic song that I had learned at the stadium. I had no idea what I was singing, but my dad was furious, he had a strong talk with me, he told me that in our family that crap was unacceptable, and he gave me a serious punishment. In addition, he didn't allow me to go to the stadium for a couple of years. He was outraged, and it was one of those childhood moments that I will never be able to forget.

But unfortunately not everybody is like my dad was. There has been a very casual attitude in Argentina towards these type of chants, sweeping it under the rug as just "chicanas del futbol" (which sort of translates to soccer related light jokes), saying that it's not meant seriously, so it should not be taken seriously. Sadly, even today, talking about this issue with my friends from Argentina, I am told by some (who are smart people who should know better) that it's just a funny song, that the French are overreacting because they are bitter, and that the media is making too much of a big deal of what's nothing more than a "chicana del futbol" that should not be taken seriously.

Now as far as the players, including Enzo Fernandez who is a 23 year old kid, and all the others who were singing that song and who play in Europe with players from all over the world, they definitely should know better. It's true that most soccer players in Argentina, including Enzo, come from the poorest, least educated strata of society, and there is a lot of ignorance and lack of education, but still, they are grown up and they should know better. In fact, they do know better. That's why when they started singing that particular song immediately Enzo rushed to turn off the recording. So, no excuse there based on upbringing.

Now, people who know Enzo say that he is not a racist. He promptly apologized, and posted some anti-racism posts, and I think it was sincere. One of his Chelsea teammates and friends, Angola's Nicolas Jackson, defended him on social media as well, which I think counts for something.

I think these players know they shouldn't be doing it, but still don't fully get the why. So it's still ignorance, unexcused ignorance, that led them to celebrate by singing this particular hateful song, just as so many Argentines think nothing of singing similar songs during local and international matches and making light of it.

Great damage was done, but maybe it's a positive that it came to light this way. That song and other similarly hateful songs are available on youtube, instagram, Tiktok etc and nobody says anything, which I suppose leads people to think that it's okay.

If having the players getting caught singing helps to raise the issue, then maybe at some level it is good that it happened, provided that it leads to the necessary conversations that need to be had, like the one that my dad had with me.

I think only through better education and efforts at fomenting awareness we can erradicate this type of 'chicanas del futbol' that unfortunately are still taken lightly today. I don't think players like Enzo are bad kids, but they are ignorant and they need to get it into their head that this behavior is reprehensible, it's not just a "chicana del futbol" that means nothing.

This conversation cannot go away, and I hope it takes place in the dining room tables of Argentina, that with this story becoming news, (and it is being talked about in Argentina), that what my dad told me when I was eight years old can be heard in households in Argentina - and in many other countries with similar issues where it also needs to be heard- and that it can be a catalist for change. I am having this conversation with relatives and friends, and I am pleased to see that many do agree strongly with me, but dissapointed that there are still too many others who still don't see it.

So, the fact that it came to light with the players who were celebrating a title maybe is a silver-lining, bringing to light something that hopefully can no longer be swept under the rug.