How Argentina Went From Darling to Villain | OneFootball

Through to the 2026 World Cup semifinals via a handful of close calls and fortunate breaks, Argentina is looking to win its fourth straight major title. And while La Albiceleste may have had the people on their side in the past, this time, it feels much different. 

On December 18, 2022, Argentina wrote its name into the history books by clinching its third World Cup title, as well as its first since 1986. For most of the 1.5 billion people who tuned in, it was a fairytale the likes of which we had never seen. Lionel Messi, at 35 years of age and on the verge of ending his European football career, willed his team to victory and completed the one thing that was missing from his résumé.

Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images

But whereas the tournament in Qatar was an unbridled victory for football lovers who had spent the past two decades praying for fate to reward La Pulga with his much-coveted trophy, the 2026 FIFA World Cup has been rather different. Since the 2022 triumph, Argentina has already matched Spain’s mark from 2008 to 2012 by winning three major trophies in a row, and now, La Albiceleste has the chance to do something that no team has ever done before: win four straight.

However, as the team closes in on destiny, there is a strong feeling of controversy that has shrouded its run in a rather unpleasant odor. Just how did Argentina go from the darlings of Qatar to becoming one of the antagonists in North America? Let’s take a look.

Has Argentina benefitted from biased refereeing decisions this tournament? That’s certainly up for debate. What we do know, however, is that the underbelly of Argentine football is rotting. This was laid to bare by award-winning ESPN investigative reporter Steve Fainaru, who penned “The Dream Factory,” a sweeping investigative series and documentary exposing the dark realities of Argentina’s youth soccer pipeline.

After beginning as a report on a specific 2018 sexual abuse scandal at one of Argentina’s top premier clubs, Fainaru’s investigation evolved into a systemic examination of Argentina’s entire youth soccer pipeline. He discovered how thousands of children leave their families at young ages to pursue professional dreams, only to face severe hardships like systemic exploitation, sexual predation, overcrowding, hunger, and deeply unsafe living environments.

Perhaps the most damaging revelation was the lack of accountability. Even when the police raided a facility and found three dozen boys living in a one-story house, even when they handed the culprit “El Zurdo” a 10-day eviction notice, he still remained in his job. He’s not the only one: countless men have been able to convince parents to let their kids into “pensiones,” where their children are made to accept a number of sacrifices in the pursuit of a footballing career.

Some have been forced to eat chicken carcasses and rice laced with black bugs, if they manage to eat at all. Some have been groomed by pedophiles on social media. Some have been forced to perform sexual acts or send revealing photos in order to receive basic needs like bus fare to go back home.

It is undeniable that this is no longer a string of isolated cases, but a nationwide epidemic, and it’s far from the only scandal that has been swept under rug by Argentina’s overwhelming footballing success.

After starting its World Cup campaign against Algeria in Kansas City, Argentina would head to Arlington to face off against Austria and Jordan, before taking on Cape Verde in Miami. Messi and Co. were made to sweat against the debutants, with the Blue Sharks taking them all the way to extra time. But while it seemed they may be headed for penalties after Sidny Lopes Cabral’s firecracker, an 111th-minute own goal sealed Argentina’s place in the Round of 16.

Although they may have won the battle on the pitch in Miami, there is another important fight still unfolding in Florida. The FBI has launched an investigation into alleged corruption involving TourProdEnter LLC, a Florida-based company that handled promotional deals for the Argentine Football Association. This investigation is going into its second year, with Argentine federal police raiding AFA headquarters and numerous clubs as part of a probe into alleged money laundering and tax evasion involving financial services firm Sur Finanzas.

Before 2022, when Argentina won its tercera estrella, sponsor payments were made directly to the AFA before being funneled down the various youth clubs in Argentina. This changed in 2023 after AFA reached an agreement with TourProdEnter, which proceeded to launch two training facilities. Although no charges have been brought, this partnership is at the crux of the FBI’s probe as to how the AFA moved more than $300 million to banks and companies in South Florida and elsewhere.

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by LA NACION (@lanacioncom)

According to Argentine outlet La Nación, TourProdEnter LLC managed at least $260 million in revenue from the AFA, although only a portion of these funds can be directly linked to identifiable operating expenses. Another $57 million was distributed by various companies and beneficiaries whose economic justification is not apparent from the documentation, with payments being allegedly made to companies connected to Pablo Toviggino, the AFA treasurer, and to family members.

The latest reporter to take aim at Argentine football is French investigative journalist Romain Molina. In his latest YouTube video, Molina made a number of allegations: FIFA provided protection to AFA despite cases related to money laundering and embezzlement, and cleared the coach of the women’s youth teams, Diego Guacci, of accusations of harassment and mistreatment of underage players, citing a lack of sufficient evidence.

According to Molina, despite the players’ request to guarantee the confidentiality of their identities before testifying, FIFA revealed the names of all the complainants. The AFA was aware of the accusations against Guacci from the outset, yet took no action against him, allowing him to continue working with the youth teams. The players described AFA internally as akin to a “mafia,” stating that they feared reporting due to concerns about retaliation.

With regards to the money laundering story, Molina asserts that the AFA granted its rights to TourProdEnter LLC, which received a fixed commission of 30% on all of the AFA’s external revenue. Moreover, FIFA agreed to transfer the prize funds to that company rather than sending them to the AFA. These funds were allegedly distributed via U.S. banks and transferred to interconnected company to conceal the real beneficiaries.

Molina’s investigation found transfers of millions of dollars to shell companies, some owned by ordinary people who were bankrupt, in debt, or living in public housing, and who would end up vanishing from their homes, changing their phone numbers, and exhibiting a newfound wealth. Moreover, these funds were used to purchase luxury properties, private planes, yachts, and karting cars.

This doesn’t even address the various issues with the AFA Liga Profesional de Fútbol, which has struggled with extreme format instability, systemic financial challenges, and a bitter political war over the privatization of clubs.

“We don’t even have a proper league format anymore,” said ESPN Argentina’s Santi Bauzá to Urban Pitch. “We’ve grown accustomed to seeing teams with clear ties with the AFA higher-ups win contentious promotion after contentious promotion. We’ve seen our league be needlessly expanded to the detriment of quality and development, the rules and format being torn apart mid-season, and what’s worse, we’ve become numb to all of it.

“The league system is an absolute mess and extremely detrimental for talent development here. You have a regular season where you only play half of the league, so at a minimum you’ll only play 15 or 16 league matches each semester. In an environment where league standing means nothing if you lose a single elimination game, that’s awful for player development, since you can have no consistency whatsoever.”

We’ve established that corruption is endemic in Argentine football, but does that mean that Argentina’s run to the World Cup semifinal is tainted? Not necessarily. However, there’s still been a handful of evidence for the conspiracy theorists to run with.

Messi kicked off his World Cup with a hat trick against Algeria, before following that up with a brace against Austria and goals against Jordan and Cape Verde. However, there’s some that believe that Messi shouldn’t have played any part in the latter three matches. After opening the scoring against Algeria, Messi launched a studs-up tackle on Aïssa Mandi, catching him on his calf and Achilles heel. His punishment? A verbal warning.

“For me, that is a red card,” said former Bundesliga referee Patrick Ittrich to MagentaTV. “We have various examples from the Bundesliga where that was punished with a red. By the letter of the law, that is a red. If I had seen it like that on the pitch, I would have shown red. If the referee had shown red, it definitely would not have been overturned.”

Granted, Messi isn’t the only player to be given a reprieve. Other players like Achraf Hakimi, Jack Hendry, Moteb Al-Harbi have been able to escape red cards for similarly nasty challenges. However, after a heart-palpitating Round of 16 fixture against Egypt in Atlanta, more people began to accuse Argentina of benefitting from biased refereeing decisions.

Yasser Ibrahim opened the scoring early on, while Messi squandered a penalty attempt shortly after. Egypt looked to have doubled the lead at the hour mark, only to have the goal annulled after it was deemed that Marwan Attia stepped on Lisandro Martínez’s foot in the build-up. That didn’t seem to bother the Pharaohs, who scored a second goal just nine minutes later.

Just like that, the Albiceleste snapped into action and produced the greatest comeback of the tournament, with Cristian Romero and Messi scoring in quick succession. Egypt believed that it should have had two penalties, with Hamdi Fathy going to ground claiming he was held by Alexis Mac Allister, while Mohamed Salah felt he was tripped by Julián Alvarez in the build-up to Enzo Fernández’s extra-time winner. But unfortunately for the Egyptians, their complaints fell on deaf ears.

“We looked better than the reigning champions, better in everything, but the result was influenced by internal factors on the pitch and external factors off it,” said Egypt manager Hossam Hassan after the match. “Perhaps they wanted to keep the world champion in the competition. Perhaps they wanted Messi to stay in the running. In football, there are sometimes external factors that go beyond the technical aspects.

“The world champion received support at every level. There seem to be pressures from the Argentina side on this outcome. We haven’t seen respect or fair play. A penalty was ruled out. It was not even checked by the VAR, and our second goal was remarkably, for whatever reason, disallowed. I want to put it in beautiful words and say, ‘Hard luck,’ but we have been treated unfairly and it has been an injustice.”

Argentina then headed to Kansas City, where, after taking an early lead via Mac Allister, looked to be on track for a relatively smooth victory. But Switzerland fought back and equalized via Dan Ndoye in the second half, demonstrating a valiant fight in their first World Cup quarterfinal since 1954. Just when it seemed that the Swiss were taking the momentum, though, Breel Embolo received a second yellow for simulation after a VAR review.

Without their two most explosive forwards in Embolo and the injured Johan Manzambi, Switzerland failed to threaten Argentina after that. Remarkably, the Swiss defense was able to keep Argentina at bay to force extra time, but a penalty shootout wasn’t in the cards, as late goals from Álvarez and Lautaro Martínez saw Argentina book their spot in the semifinal.

“We were dominant,” Switzerland manager Murat Yakin after the match. “We controlled the game. But the red card, we are punished because of a rule that is, to me, absolutely incomprehensible. Of course it hurts enormously that we were eliminated in this way. We didn’t deserve that today. For a situation where beforehand there should have been yellow cards several times, he gave a yellow card in a situation that, to me, was a harmless foul, or if it was even a foul at all.

“They protect their referee over a rule that destroyed our game today. That hurts enormously. First of all, for me there was not a single reason to give the Argentine player a yellow card. He simply should have let play continue. He corrected his own mistake against us, and well, afterward you could see that we were playing with one fewer man.”

It’s easy to feel empathy for Switzerland, but there was no conspiracy against the team. Embolo might have felt that he was being clever by getting Leandro Paredes booked, but it was a foolish move in the end. For a player who has effectively replaced Xherdan Shaqiri as his team’s attacking talisman, it was a horrendous way for his tournament to end.

It was an obvious dive and deservedly got him sent off. And as he trudged through the linear mixed zone, well ahead of any of his teammates, you could see it in his face that he knew he had truly cost his team. Because this Argentina side was there for the taking, but once again, it rode its luck to a nervy victory.

Argentina will now head to Atlanta to take on England, and with a win will meet Spain or France in the World Cup Final in New Jersey. Whether Argentina manages to continue its magical run under Lionel Scaloni or not, one thing’s for sure: the team will have far fewer neutrals rooting for them in 2026 than it did in 2022.