President Javier Milei launched a scathing social media response over an online petition calling for Argentina to be banned from future FIFA World Cups. The controversy erupted following Argentina’s loss against Spain in the FIFA World Cup 2026 final where Ferran Torres scored the winner in extra-time. Argentina faced a number of disciplinary issues and were unable to register a single shot on target during regulation time. Following the match, the “Argentina Out” campaign ended up getting 23,316,108 verified signatures from supporters across roughly 170 countries. The campaign called for Argentina to be excluded from future World Cups and argued that their conduct damaged the image of the ‘beautiful game’.
However, Argentina President Javier Milei responded with a series of posts on Instagram. He defended the national team and slammed the ongoing criticism.
“Do you have enemies? It means you once defended something. We defend Argentina,” read one of his posts.
“The problem with Argentina is that we stand out. We don’t go unnoticed, people are jealous of us, and we’re good at almost everything,” he wrote in another Instagram post.
Earlier, Argentina footballer Leandro Paredes admitted that the eventual champions, Spain, deserved to win the 2026 FIFA World Cup and added that the pain of losing the final will stay with them for a long time.
Paredes was at the centre of controversy as, after the final whistle rang and Spain were crowned champions by a 1-0 margin, he was involved in altercations with Spanish stars Eric Garcia and Gavi, as per Goal.com.
The Argentina star said to ESPN as quoted by Goal.com, that Spain deserved to win their second title and the Argentina side do not pay heed to any conspiracy theories surrounding their losses.
Two of the most popular theories on the internet was FIFA WC final being set up in favour of Spain so that FIFA president Gianni Infantino could get re-elected with the support of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and that Argentina was forced to lose after they made a political message by holding a “Las Malvinas son Argentinas” (“The Falklands are Argentine”) on the pitch following their World Cup semi-final victory over England and faced risk of being banned from two upcoming FIFA World Cups otherwise.
“Spain were better than us in the final, and they deserve to win the World Cup. We pay no attention to these theories. If I were to believe everything I hear, I would lose my mind. A lot was said before, during and after the World Cup,” he added.
Reflecting on his team’s run to the final, Paredes said that the team put on a wonderful tournament and whatever the team has achieved over the last eight years, including two Copa America titles and the FIFA World Cup trophy in 2022, makes it an “exceptional journey”.
“Perhaps we will realise the greatness of what we have accomplished as time passes, because it is something unbelievable,” he added.
(With ANI inputs)