{"id":548244,"date":"2026-07-18T23:36:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T23:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/548244\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T23:36:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T23:36:11","slug":"rifts-began-to-appear-why-many-latin-americans-want-spain-to-beat-argentina-in-the-world-cup-final-argentina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/548244\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Rifts began to appear\u2019: Why many Latin Americans want Spain to beat Argentina in the World Cup final | Argentina"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Brazilian journalist and columnist Julia Duailibi usually writes about politics in her weekly column for the leading Brazilian newspaper O Globo, but last Thursday she took a different tack, writing instead about why she would not be supporting neighbouring Argentina<\/a> in the World Cup final.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have always been an admirer of the hermanos [as Brazilians affectionately call Argentinians] and would have loved to cheer on a fellow South American team,\u201d she wrote<\/a> on the morning after Argentina\u2019s dramatic semi-final victory over England. \u201cBut I admit that the racist scenes involving a minority of the fans, and the silence of the majority on the pitch, turned my stomach.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her stand is just one example of a common sentiment: across Latin America, many<\/a> people have declared their support for Spain<\/a> in Sunday\u2019s final. Racism by some<\/a> Argentinian fans has been cited as one reason, but not the only one.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the past, people were more likely to support a Latin American team against a European one, but that has changed quite a lot in recent years,\u201d said Nicol\u00e1s Cabrera, an Argentinian sociologist and anthropologist who has devoted his academic career to studying football supporters across Latin America.<\/p>\n

Previously, he said, that approach had largely been confined to Argentina\u2019s traditional local rivals \u2013 above all Brazil, but also Uruguay and Chile \u2013 but has more recently extended to some Mexicans, Colombians and Ecuadorians.<\/p>\n

\u201cRifts began to appear for several reasons,\u201d said Cabrera, who has lived in Rio de Janeiro for the past 10 years, where he is a university lecturer and researcher.<\/p>\n

First, there is the fact that Argentina have by far been Latin America\u2019s most successful national team in recent years, reaching three of the past four World Cup<\/a> finals and winning at least one of them.<\/p>\n

Over the same period, their neighbours have suffered much earlier exits This includes Brazil, who have not reached the World Cup final since winning their record fifth title in 2002.<\/p>\n

Argentina also have the star who has been lifting trophies and winning hearts around the world for two decades: Lionel Messi<\/a>, who, even at 39, has been one of this World Cup\u2019s standout players.<\/p>\n

Cabrera also sees the growing rivalry as a consequence of the increasing number of matches between clubs \u2013 the Copa Libertadores continental tournament featured about 20 teams until the 1990s; today, including the preliminary rounds, nearly 50 compete. \u201cAs our teams play each other more often, fans start winding each other up,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But Cabrera added that social media have also contributed: \u201cHate speech, racism, xenophobia and discrimination began to circulate in ways that had previously been more marginal and less visible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Benfica\u2019s Argentinian forward Gianluca Prestianni hides his mouth while arguing with Vin\u00edcius J\u00fanior, who complained about alleged racist insults. Prestianni is not on Argentina\u2019s World Cup team this year. Photograph: Patr\u00edcia de Melo Moreira\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

It is difficult for there to be a match between clubs from Argentina and Brazil without at least one video<\/a> emerging of an Argentina supporter making monkey gestures at Brazilians. But this is far from new: in 1920, on the eve of a friendly between the two sides, an Argentinian newspaper published<\/a> a cartoon depicting the Brazilian players as monkeys.<\/p>\n

In recent months, several<\/a> tourists from Argentina have been arrested in Brazil for \u201cracial insult\u201d, a crime under Brazilian law. While celebrating his country\u2019s victory over England, an Argentinian tourist was filmed in the Brazilian north-eastern state of Bahia making monkey gestures at a Black Brazilian. He was not arrested and has reportedly<\/a> already returned to Argentina.<\/p>\n

What had previously been confined to the streets and the stands at Copa Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana matches spilled over into the World Cup \u2013 including the incidents involving US influencer IShowSpeed<\/a> in Argentina\u2019s game against Cape Verde. That was what prompted Duailibi to take a break from politics to write about Argentina.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know Brazil is not a model<\/a> in this respect either, that we still have a long way to go when it comes to racism, but at least our legal framework is far more effective than theirs,\u201d she said. Argentina has no law that explicitly criminalises racism.<\/p>\n

The controversies are not confined to Brazil or the terraces. While celebrating their 2024 Copa Am\u00e9rica title, Argentina players chanted<\/a> racist and homophobic songs about members of the France squad they had defeated in the 2022 World Cup final. During the current World Cup, a well-known rightwing Argentinian journalist said on a television programme that he hated Mexicans<\/a> \u201cwith all his soul\u201d. Days earlier, he had also claimed that, during a match between Mexico and Ecuador, the Ecuadorians played in fear after supposedly being \u201cthreatened with death\u201d by a Mexican drug cartel. Mexico\u2019s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, described the remarks as \u201coutrageous\u201d.<\/p>\n

While condemning the racist incidents involving some Argentinians, F\u00e1bio Lu\u00eds Barbosa dos Santos, a Brazilian historian specialising in Latin America, said that they will not stop him from supporting the neighbouring country in the final.<\/p>\n

Brazilian Jo\u00e3o Felipe Jr will travel 270 miles to support Argentina at a bar founded by Argentinians in S\u00e3o Paulo. Photograph: Courtesy of Jo\u00e3o Felipe Jr.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the issue is racism, then you couldn\u2019t support Spain either,\u201d he said, recalling not only Spain\u2019s colonial past, during which it profited from the enslavement of Africans and their descendants, but also the countless recent cases of racist abuse directed at<\/a> the Brazilian footballer Vin\u00edcius J\u00fanior by La Liga supporters in his appearances for Real Madrid.<\/p>\n

Santos said he would be supporting Argentina \u201cbecause we are countries bound together by our colonial past, by dictatorships and now by the far right\u201d, noting that while Argentina has President Javier Milei, Brazil until recently had Jair Bolsonaro<\/a> in the equivalent position. \u201cTheir misfortunes are ours too, as their joys should be,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

He is far from the only Brazilian supporting Argentina in the final.<\/p>\n

The ride-hailing driver Jo\u00e3o Felipe Jr, 32, will travel 270 miles from Rio de Janeiro to S\u00e3o Paulo to watch the match at a bar founded by Argentinians that went viral<\/a> for welcoming dozens of Brazilians who have also chosen to support the neighbouring country.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a Brazil v Argentina match at the Maracan\u00e3 three years ago that I attended with the Argentina supporters,\u201d said Felipe Jr, who dismissed as \u201cnonsense\u201d the flood of memes and conspiracy theories<\/a> on social media claiming that Argentina had been favoured by Fifa.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey deserve to be in the final, above all because of what Messi is doing. For me, it has everything to do with him. When he retires, I\u2019ll stop supporting Argentina,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n