FIFA interferes in scandal match at Olympics
Argentine Newspapers Criticize, That Even Excentric Writers Would Not Come Up With Such a Story as Argentine Footballers Wrote for the Olympic Games' Opening Match Against Morocco. The Four-Hour Game Has Now Drawn the Attention of FIFA.
The Football World Cup organization FIFA has intervened in the investigations regarding the chaos during the opening match of the Olympic Games between Argentina and Morocco. An integrity expert is to support the investigations, as FIFA announced. It concerns possible violations of the World Cup regulations. The Olympic organizers had previously stated that they would look into the matter.
After the rush of Moroccan fans, the game was interrupted just before the end on Wednesday. The equalizer of the Argentine team to 2:2 was then canceled. The Argentine team had asked the Disciplinary Commission of the World Cup to take action regarding the incidents. It was a "serious incident".
Argentina's trainer Javier Mascherano called this 1:2 (0:1) against Morocco at the Olympic opening, which ended four hours (!) after the kick-off and was overshadowed by a rush on the field and a bizarre restart for three minutes of play time, "the greatest circus I have ever seen in my life". He considered it "a shame that such a thing happened and poisoned the tournament. Something like that would not even happen at a village tournament." His conclusion? "It's pathetic."
"The Olympic Games, Stormed by the Absurd"
The match against Morocco ended chaotically in Saint-Étienne. Argentina had scored the supposed equalizer in the 16th minute of added time. Because Moroccan fans stormed the field out of anger over the long added time, the game could not continue. For a long time, there was uncertainty whether the game had been ended or only interrupted.
The teams returned to the field after almost two hours, in front of now empty stands. The game was resumed, but experienced Swedish FIFA referee Glenn Nyberg consulted the VAR first regarding the supposed equalizer. And decided, based on the video images, that Medina's goal did not count because of offside. Nyberg let three more minutes be played, then the final whistle blew, finally, over four hours after the kick-off - and the Argentine press was furious.
"The organizational start of the Olympic Games was catastrophic, as if football didn't matter to them," wrote the newspaper Ole: "The Olympic Games, stormed by the absurd. France started with the chaos of a Third World Country." La Nacion headlined: "Not even the most excentric novelist would come up with such a horrifying story." The Olympic idea had been "laughed at" by absurdity.
FIFA is also keeping an eye on the Olympic Games 2024 in Paris, given the chaotic opening match between Argentina and Morocco in the soccer event. Despite the intervention by FIFA, the incident involving the Moroccan fans and the disputed goal by Argentina remains under investigation.
