Beyond football: Why Spain vs Argentina is also a clash of politics | Football News
Amidst the rubble in Gaza, and away from the spectacle of the FIFA event in North America, a simulation World Cup game was played on Thursday among the footballers who have survived the ongoing “genocide” in Palestine.It was a surreal sight that looked right out of a Polanski war film.The green turf, surrounded by a city in a shambles, was not just witness to the first football game to be live streamed in Gaza since the Israel-led attacks began in Oct 2023, the six-a-side game also had an interesting political context.While one team was in Palestine national colours, the other had on them the Spanish jersey — apparently in acknowledgement of Spain’s support and recognition of the state of Palestine. It also brought to fore the support that the La Rojas would garner from this strife-torn region when they face off against Argentina in the World Cup final on Monday.The Spanish flags that were fluttering beside the Palestinian ones were also testimony to the fact that despite all the mandates from FIFA to make the World Cup free of politics, the reality was far from the rules written behind closed doors of its Zurich headquarters.It also doesn’t help the Gianni Infantino-led world body’s cause that the protagonists at the MetLife Stadium on Monday will be representing two countries on opposite ends of the political spectrum.While Spain’s socialist prime minister Pedro Sanchez has been the loudest voice for Palestine, inclusiveness and left ideology in Europe, his Argentine counterpart’s political ideology can be summed up in him being one of the strongest supporters of US President Donald Trump.Prime minister Javier Milei has been famously quoted as saying that “the only left that works is the left foot of Messi”.He is an anarcho-capitalist, minarchist and libertarian conservative, who advocates conservative social values, is an Israel supporter and has Benjamin Netanyahu as another famous friend.That his ideology may have spilled over to the World Cup venues is evident in the racist slurs that some Argentine fans have been documented as inflicting on a coloured US influencer as well as them throwing beer on Egypt fans during Argentina’s round of 16 clash.There was the incident of some players from the 2022 World Cupwinning team singing a racist song on the team bus after their victory in Qatar.It is a satire on history itself that the country once colonised by the Spanish empire — that rid the land of its own people — now has Milei’s rightist govt at the helm while its colonisers are standing to the left and advocating for diversity and socialism. And, that the Latin American finalists are the only all-white team among the 48 nations at the World Cup while Spain will have players of immigrant descent like Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams working in tandem with ethnic Spaniards like Pedri and Ferran Torres to bring the trophy home.It is also worth noting that the man who has replaced the Che-tattoo sporting Maradona as football’s greatest, remains apolitical, seeing nothing in being seen with Trump. Hence, Lionel Messi is also in stark contrast to his striking counterpart at the opposite end, the 19-year-old Yamal, who waved the Palestinian flag during Barcelona’s victory parade.And that’s the reality the world will stare at when the summit clash kicks off in New Jersey.However, the 2026 edition — being held in the backdrop of the US and Israel’s war on Iran — has already been mired in politics.While the Iran team had to shift its base to Mexico due to US sanctions and forced to rush in and out of the States for its matches, the African Referee of the Year, Somalian Omar Artan, was victim to another of the hosts’ sanctions preventing him from entering its lands to officiate at the World Cup.So, when the La Rojas take the field against the Albiceleste, the political overtones will linger in its background.And while a Spanish victory is bound to see the La Rojigualda flutter in the far-off Gaza sky, an Argentine win will not just be another gift for Messi fans but is also likely to make the biggest icons of the right wing — Milei, Trump and Netanyahu, who has also expressed his support for Argentina — rejoice in unison.
