Argentina World Cup Discussion

So FIFA just randomly decided to start helping Argentina fix matches all of a sudden from 2022 onwards. 2018, 2014, 2020 - no help. 2022 - full fixing.

I’m sure the Argentinian FA paid off Kolo Muani and whoever missed the pens for France in the final, too.

Ronaldo fans are a different sort of cult altogether. It’s fine to say a team got lucky / unlucky. Sometimes United get decisions for and against and we hate it when the latter happens but the fixing talk is amusing.
 
amolbhatia50k said:
So FIFA just randomly decided to start helping Argentina fix matches all of a sudden from 2022 onwards. 2018, 2014, 2020 - no help. 2022 - full fixing.

I’m sure the Argentinian FA paid off Kolo Muani and whoever missed the pens for France in the final, too.

Ronaldo fans are a different sort of cult altogether. It’s fine to say a team got lucky / unlucky. Sometimes United get decisions for and against and we hate it when the latter happens but the fixing talk is amusing.
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The conspiracy theories are strange for sure, and make absolutely no logical sense

Tbh I just assumed it was a case of people hating the Argentina style, much the same way people hate a team like Atletico Madrid. But If the hate comes solely out of spite for Messi then that only makes the whole thing 100x more cringey. Difficult to believe grown men can be reduced to such extreme levels teen fangirl behaviour because of how much they like a particular player. Can't say I'll ever understand it
 
amolbhatia50k said:
So FIFA just randomly decided to start helping Argentina fix matches all of a sudden from 2022 onwards. 2018, 2014, 2020 - no help. 2022 - full fixing.

I’m sure the Argentinian FA paid off Kolo Muani and whoever missed the pens for France in the final, too.

Ronaldo fans are a different sort of cult altogether. It’s fine to say a team got lucky / unlucky. Sometimes United get decisions for and against and we hate it when the latter happens but the fixing talk is amusing.
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Pretty much. It's people being chronically online and seeing the feeds of the conspiracy nuts. Argentina getting favourable decisions is no different to what United fans had to put up with when Fergie was here. Ask majority of fans from back then and they'd be convinced that we had the refs in our back pocket.

Social media back then would have been even more toxic than now.
 
Argentina is a passionate and spontaneous society so the way they play on instinct helps them in big moments. Yes they’re flawed but they’ve lost very few games over a long time with Scaloni. They still play positive football.

People saying England would thrash them, they barely got through DR Congo and Mexico themselves. In the big moment if those two meet, with the historical pressure on England to make a final for the first time since 1966 and Argentina in bonus time to make it again, let’s say it’s 1-1 after 80 minutes. I’m backing the team with Messi and the experience over the one that tends to shit itself when it matters most.
 
I will point once again, refereeing was not good against Egypt, and for whatever reason, rules were not applied consistenly. I am not speaking about big decisions necessarily, more like stupid, unprovoked slap here or there, a 50/50 that goes in favor of Argentina as a foul etc.

I can't believe somebody had watched the game and didn't see that. Salah one was not a penalty in my opinion and neither was the goal for Egypt ruled out incorrectly, although we do come to consistent rule application issue yet again.
 
Bosnian_fan said:
I will point once again, refereeing was not good against Egypt, and for whatever reason, rules were not applied consistenly. I am not speaking about big decisions necessarily, more like stupid, unprovoked slap here or there, a 50/50 that goes in favor of Argentina as a foul etc.

I can't believe somebody had watched the game and didn't see that. Salah one was not a penalty in my opinion and neither was the goal for Egypt ruled out incorrectly, although we do come to consistent rule application issue yet again.
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It was clear after a few mins that they were getting all the decisions.

Oh I dislike Ronaldo. Hate his fans. Messi has been a far better player blah blah blah*.

*FIFA are cnuts.
 
Tony247 said:
Lot of complaints of bias from Egypt fans, and many neutral fans too. I understand Egyptians' frustration but I saw nothing wrong in refree's decisions. Egypt couldn't defend two goals lead in last 10 mins and full marks to the grit Argentina showed. The half volley goal under immense pressure by Messi is one of the technically most difficult one to pull off.

Egypt was better for almost all the match. It is just that Argentina wanted the win more than them.
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The inconsistency of those decisions were incredible - I'm not sure how anyone can NOT see that!
 
Bonnie Tyler said:
You're not wrong.

Anyway, this is worth a watch.



Obviously not every foul is a card but Argentina are refereed differently compared to other teams. Whilst the Salah one at the end is nowhere near a penalty, would it be called the same way if it was an Argentine player who was 'fouled'? The Mac Alister one is the one I have the biggest issue with. It was quite clearly a foul and for it not to even be looked at? Give me a break.
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That’s not working anymore but yeah Argentina we’re getting slightly favourable treatment during the game. Not sure why people are pretending otherwise. It was the same for France Paraguay.
amolbhatia50k said:
So FIFA just randomly decided to start helping Argentina fix matches all of a sudden from 2022 onwards. 2018, 2014, 2020 - no help. 2022 - full fixing.

I’m sure the Argentinian FA paid off Kolo Muani and whoever missed the pens for France in the final, too.

Ronaldo fans are a different sort of cult altogether. It’s fine to say a team got lucky / unlucky. Sometimes United get decisions for and against and we hate it when the latter happens but the fixing talk is amusing.
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AndySmith1990 said:
The conspiracy theories are strange for sure, and make absolutely no logical sense

Tbh I just assumed it was a case of people hating the Argentina style, much the same way people hate a team like Atletico Madrid. But If the hate comes solely out of spite for Messi then that only makes the whole thing 100x more cringey. Difficult to believe grown men can be reduced to such extreme levels teen fangirl behaviour because of how much they like a particular player. Can't say I'll ever understand it
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Guys, we’ve literally seen a red card rescinded to help out a home nation because the president of fifa is mates with the president of that home nation.
We’ve seen Cristiano Ronaldo escape a World Cup suspension for no apparent reason (fifa gave there’s but it was unprecedented) before the tournament to avoid him missing games. We’ve also seen Lionel Messi avoid the most obvious red card during the tournament to avoid him missing games.

Fixing and conspiracy talk is absolutely not illogical or strange. Fifa are bent as feck and whilst I don’t believe they’re trying to outright rig matches, there is definitely a desire to ensure certain players are treated differently and they aren’t held to the same standards as others and so they can do things such as escape clear suspensions. And in turn that will have a knock on effect for the teams those players play for getting slightly favourable treatment. It might not be flat out match fixing but it is clear wrongdoing and borderline corruption as it is done with financial gain in mind. We know how important it was for Ronaldo and Messi to play every game and fifa have interfered to ensure that happened. That is no conspiracy, that literally happened.

And @amolbhatia50k it’s also a disservice to try and attribute this talk to ‘Ronaldo fans’.
 
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I’m certain if it was Argentina that scored the disallowed goal Egypt scored, and the ref counted it, there would be cries of how the Egyptian defender was fouled.
 
amolbhatia50k said:
So FIFA just randomly decided to start helping Argentina fix matches all of a sudden from 2022 onwards. 2018, 2014, 2020 - no help. 2022 - full fixing.

I’m sure the Argentinian FA paid off Kolo Muani and whoever missed the pens for France in the final, too.

Ronaldo fans are a different sort of cult altogether. It’s fine to say a team got lucky / unlucky. Sometimes United get decisions for and against and we hate it when the latter happens but the fixing talk is amusing.
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The vast majority of people talking about this have nothing to do with Ronaldo.
 
Ludens the Red said:
That’s not working anymore but yeah Argentina we’re getting slightly favourable treatment during the game. Not sure why people are pretending otherwise. It was the same for France Paraguay.



Guys, we’ve literally seen a red card rescinded to help out a home nation because the president of fifa is mates with the president of that home nation.
We’ve seen Cristiano Ronaldo escape a World Cup suspension for no apparent reason (fifa gave there’s but it was unprecedented) before the tournament to avoid him missing games. We’ve also seen Lionel Messi avoid the most obvious red card during the tournament to avoid him missing games.

Fixing and conspiracy talk is absolutely not illogical or strange. Fifa are bent as feck and whilst I don’t believe they’re trying to outright rig matches, there is definitely a desire to ensure certain players are treated differently and they aren’t held to the same standards as others and so they can do things such as escape clear suspensions. And in turn that will have a knock on effect for the teams those players play for getting slightly favourable treatment. It might not be flat out match fixing but it is clear wrongdoing and borderline corruption as it is done with financial gain in mind. We know how important it was for Ronaldo and Messi to play every game and fifa have interfered to ensure that happened. That is no conspiracy, that literally happened.

And @amolbhatia50k it’s also a disservice to try and attribute this talk to ‘Ronaldo fans’.
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I mean, in 2022, Argentina got penalties for fun and crazy decisions in their favour.

Same is happening in 2026. It doesn’t mean they are shite and are there purely because of advantageous refereeing, but they are very much being helped by it
 
I meant I undestand that we are in WC 2026 but the whole rigged thing was running for 2022 as well. In QF against the Netherlands they ended up with 11 minutes of extra time in which they equailzed. In the bloody final France got 2 penalties when trailing. Pretty terrible way to rig it for Argentina.
 
amolbhatia50k said:
So FIFA just randomly decided to start helping Argentina fix matches all of a sudden from 2022 onwards. 2018, 2014, 2020 - no help. 2022 - full fixing.

I’m sure the Argentinian FA paid off Kolo Muani and whoever missed the pens for France in the final, too.

Ronaldo fans are a different sort of cult altogether. It’s fine to say a team got lucky / unlucky. Sometimes United get decisions for and against and we hate it when the latter happens but the fixing talk is amusing.
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Feels quite lazy to label people ‘Ronaldo fans’, as it would be lazy to label everyone defending Argentina ‘Messi fans’.
 
They could struggle vs Switzerland but even if they beat them think England will stop them in semis. That's of course if England beat Norway.
 
I don't think that was a foul on Martinez but it doesn't mean Argentina would have lost the game anyway. They were sparked into life by the actual given second goal so maybe the same would have happened earlier.

Messi is an absolute freak though, he literally lifted that side in an unbelievable way.
 
Bonnie Tyler said:
You're not wrong.

Anyway, this is worth a watch.



Obviously not every foul is a card but Argentina are refereed differently compared to other teams. Whilst the Salah one at the end is nowhere near a penalty, would it be called the same way if it was an Argentine player who was 'fouled'? The Mac Alister one is the one I have the biggest issue with. It was quite clearly a foul and for it not to even be looked at? Give me a break.
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Fouls per card this world cup so far:

England: Card per every 7 fouls
Morocco: Card per every 9,8 fouls
Belgium: Card per every 10 fouls
Switzerland: Card per every 11,5 fouls
France: Card per every 12,2 fouls
Norway: Card per every 13,6 fouls
Spain: Card per every 17,5 fouls
Argentina: Card per every 22 fouls

Certainly something not right in the way Argentina games are being refereed. One card for every 22 fouls is outrageous.
 
So the suggestion is that it was rigged for Argentina and they got all the calls and Egypt got none of the same, but for some reason the people conspiring against Egypt and not giving them anything decided to put Egypt 2-0 up?

Is that really the theory?

If it was rigged Egypt wouldnt have been given their goals.
 
brozonis said:
Fouls per card this world cup so far:

England: Card per every 7 fouls
Morocco: Card per every 9,8 fouls
Belgium: Card per every 10 fouls
Switzerland: Card per every 11,5 fouls
France: Card per every 12,2 fouls
Norway: Card per every 13,6 fouls
Spain: Card per every 17,5 fouls
Argentina: Card per every 22 fouls

Certainly something not right in the way Argentina games are being refereed. One card for every 22 fouls is outrageous.
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Paraguay 7000 fouls, no yellow cards.
 
brozonis said:
Fouls per card this world cup so far:

England: Card per every 7 fouls
Morocco: Card per every 9,8 fouls
Belgium: Card per every 10 fouls
Switzerland: Card per every 11,5 fouls
France: Card per every 12,2 fouls
Norway: Card per every 13,6 fouls
Spain: Card per every 17,5 fouls
Argentina: Card per every 22 fouls

Certainly something not right in the way Argentina games are being refereed. One card for every 22 fouls is outrageous.
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Not all fouls are equal. Thats why 1 of those fouls by England was a straight red and the rest werent.
 
Ekeke said:
Not all fouls are equal. Thats why 1 of those fouls by England was a straight red and the rest werent.
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Are you telling me England fouls are three times as bad or bad fouls three times as likely on average? And it's not like Argentina couldn't/shouldn't have had a red card either
 
Ekeke said:
Not all fouls are equal. Thats why 1 of those fouls by England was a straight red and the rest werent.
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Not all fouls are equal, but being able to make 22 fouls for one card is a joke. It basically means one team has carte blanche to stop attacks and break up the game with impunity.

It's the discrepancy between Argentina and pretty much everyone else which is most revealing. Either there is an element of biased refereeing going on, or Argentina have perfected exploiting a loophole in the laws of the game. Either way, it shouldn't be happening.
 
Ekeke said:
So the suggestion is that it was rigged for Argentina and they got all the calls and Egypt got none of the same, but for some reason the people conspiring against Egypt and not giving them anything decided to put Egypt 2-0 up?

Is that really the theory?

If it was rigged Egypt wouldnt have been given their goals.
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Why would you, of all things, pick the rigging as thing worth discussing?

Rigging doesn't work that way anyway, it is impossible to affect matches in a way you seem to think rigging is done without getting a huge blowback.

What rigging does is creating uneven conditions for two teams.
 
brozonis said:
Fouls per card this world cup so far:

England: Card per every 7 fouls
Morocco: Card per every 9,8 fouls
Belgium: Card per every 10 fouls
Switzerland: Card per every 11,5 fouls
France: Card per every 12,2 fouls
Norway: Card per every 13,6 fouls
Spain: Card per every 17,5 fouls
Argentina: Card per every 22 fouls

Certainly something not right in the way Argentina games are being refereed. One card for every 22 fouls is outrageous.
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Is it a sliding scale then, Spain games are rigged in their favour compared to the harsh treatment England get, but if it comes down to it, Argentina will get the rub of the green vs Spain?

I'm not surprised Spain and Argentina top those stats given their systematic fouling (for better or worse). That doesn't mean they are getting away without enough cards.

*I actually think they should have had a couple more yellows, but those stats can't tell you that.
 
Bosnian_fan said:
Why would you, of all things, pick the rigging as thing worth discussing?

Rigging doesn't work that way anyway, it is impossible to affect matches in a way you seem to think rigging is done without getting a huge blowback.

What rigging does is creating uneven conditions for two teams.
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Exactly. There has to be some plausible deniability, but if one team consistently gets marginal calls in their favour, particularly regarding goals, red cards and penalties, it still adds up to a huge advantage - especially with VAR in place capable of reviewing everything.
 
I wanted Argentina to come back once they scored the first one.. but I will agree Egypt rightly should feel hard done by..

If your going to cross off the Egypt goal because of a challenge (way back) in the build up, you gotta do the same for the Argentina one. At least have a look at it.

But im not buying this that Salah was fouled in the box at the same time though. He tried to dribble past the fella, lost the ball. the he went down. Thats happens 100s times in other games and its not a foul.
 
DennisReynolds said:
Is it a sliding scale then, Spain games are rigged in their favour compared to the harsh treatment England get, but if it comes down to it, Argentina will get the rub of the green vs Spain?

I'm not surprised Spain and Argentina top those stats given their systematic fouling (for better or worse). That doesn't mean they are getting away without enough cards.

*I actually think they should have had a couple more yellows, but those stats can't tell you that.
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Have you watched Argentina's games? These fouls are not small comings together or slightly mistimed interceptions - it's Mac Allister and Fernandez constantly knocking players over, Romero steaming into tackles with huge aggression, Martinez pulling shirts to stop counter attacks. They absolutely should have had way more bookings.
 
brozonis said:
Have you watched Argentina's games? These fouls are not small comings together or slightly mistimed interceptions - it's Mac Allister and Fernandez constantly knocking players over, Romero steaming into tackles with huge aggression, Martinez pulling shirts to stop counter attacks. They absolutely should have had way more bookings.
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I've watched them all, yes.

They've been fortunate with some yellows, as I already acknowledged. What you're missing is that other teams have had plenty of players fortunate not to be booked at times too.
 
Could bad refereeing have landed in the favor of Argentina? Yes. Could it happen multiple times? Yes. But why does that equate to FIFA actively tilting officiating towards Argentina and not just Argentina being a beneficiary of good luck/bad refereeing?
 
Vile team full of scumbags. Can't deny their mentality or even quality on the pitch but along with their awful fanbase they are a very dislikeable team to me.
 
Semigoodlookin said:
Could bad refereeing have landed in the favor of Argentina? Yes. Could it happen multiple times? Yes. But why does that equate to FIFA actively tilting officiating towards Argentina and not just Argentina being a beneficiary of good luck/bad refereeing?
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Because of consistency.

Even if we do dismiss all these as "50/50 stuff that could have gone either way", which most of them are, how come they almost always go one way?
 
I prefer to see a different winner of the World Cup, but on the other hand I don't want the World Cup to turn into a Euros after the QFs. And it would be funny if Messi got a second title to piss of the Ronaldo fans. So at least I hope they beat Switzerland.
 
Fenômeno said:
Surprised this wasn't discussed more, certainly grounds for a red card and got lost in all the other noise.
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Even if it wasn't red, it is impossible how much of this behavior is allowed to happen. Argentina clearly are the bad boys, and they can be, because they are allowed.

Licha, Romero, Alexis, Enzo, they are all dirty players.

I will say once again, the big decisions where judged correctly, but when game after game certain behaviors are allowed that are against rules and other teams are not allowed to behave likewise/don't do it anyway, and it also keeps piling up, questions have to be asked.

Not any single game is completely rigged, but playing field is uneven for certain teams.

If we all saw that slap with absolute certainty in a TV view with an angle from far outside, how come the referee hasn't seen it, neither him nor his assistants?
 
Ludens the Red said:
And @amolbhatia50k it’s also a disservice to try and attribute this talk to ‘Ronaldo fans’.
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Okay, conspiracy nuts then.

You can say that officials maybe are a bit scared to send off big players etc but there’s no basis to hold the bizarre view that fifa are helping Argentina.

Were they helping Germany too when that England goal wasn’t given? Maybe when those we like win it is fair and those we don’t then it’s cheating?
 
brozonis said:
Not all fouls are equal, but being able to make 22 fouls for one card is a joke. It basically means one team has carte blanche to stop attacks and break up the game with impunity.

It's the discrepancy between Argentina and pretty much everyone else which is most revealing. Either there is an element of biased refereeing going on, or Argentina have perfected exploiting a loophole in the laws of the game. Either way, it shouldn't be happening.
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The least you could do is list which players in particular have made 6 or 7 fouls and didnt get a booking. If its evenly split among the whole team it would be 2 fouls each, which would be a small number to get a booking
 
brozonis said:
Fouls per card this world cup so far:

England: Card per every 7 fouls
Morocco: Card per every 9,8 fouls
Belgium: Card per every 10 fouls
Switzerland: Card per every 11,5 fouls
France: Card per every 12,2 fouls
Norway: Card per every 13,6 fouls
Spain: Card per every 17,5 fouls
Argentina: Card per every 22 fouls

Certainly something not right in the way Argentina games are being refereed. One card for every 22 fouls is outrageous.
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But Spain are fine right? It’s like Bernardo Silva committing a lot of fouls without being carded. Some teams are better at these things.
 
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