BUENOS AIRES—Argentina’s government on Wednesday defended the mammoth parade held to welcome home the World Cup winners even though the event was abruptly cut short amid organizational chaos.
And former FIFA president Sepp Blatter criticized successor Gianni Infantino’s plans for a 48-team World Cup and an expanded Club World Cup just two days after Argentina’s dramatic victory over France in the final that has become the most-watched soccer match of any kind in the United States.
After days of high-profile activity, team captain Lionel Messi and most of the other members of the national soccer squad were largely staying out of sight and spending time with family and friends.
There had been speculation that Rosario, Argentina’s third-largest city, would put on its own celebration for hometown hero Messi. But after Tuesday’s chaos in Buenos Aires, where millions swamped the streets eager to get a glimpse of the winning team, officials were emphasizing that the players preferred to rest.
In talking about the early end to Tuesday’s parade, Security Minister Aníbal Fernández said: “The objective was to protect the players—not because they were going to be harmed, but rather because anything could help when so many people were trying to get close to them.”
The World Cup and the success of the national team brought a brief respite from the political infighting that is common in Argentina, a country that has been plagued by economic malaise for years and is suffering one of the world’s highest inflation rates. But controversy over the parade brought back
Soccer officials had said early Tuesday that the team would travel in an open-top bus from the Argentine Football Association headquarters outside the capital to the Obelisk, the iconic downtown Buenos Aires landmark that is the traditional site of celebrations. Fernández said he warned early on that was a mistake.
“Look at the photos. Put a bus in the middle of there and you realize that they would have stayed living there for six days,” Fernández said.
President Alberto Fernández sought to play up the celebration itself, saying that “if you see the happiness that there were in the streets, the objective was met.”
Meanwhile, in an interview with German weekly Die Zeit released Wednesday, Blatter said that “what is happening at the moment is an ‘overcommercialization’ of the game.”
“There are attempts to squeeze more and more out of the lemon—for example with the World Cup finals with 48 teams or now with a Club World Cup that must be viewed as direct competition to the Champions League,” he was quoted as saying. “FIFA is encroaching here on something that is actually none of its business, club soccer.”
The 2026 World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada will be the first 48-nation tournament, meeting Infantino’s election pledge of a bigger and more inclusive World Cup going beyond European and South American teams. This year’s tournament in Qatar featured 32 teams.
Earlier this month, Infantino called for a 32-team men’s Club World Cup in 2025.
Blatter announced in June 2015 that he would resign early as FIFA president, in the fallout from a sprawling corruption investigation. He has long denied wrongdoing, saying in Wednesday’s interview that “I have never taken money that I didn’t earn—that’s why nothing on me could ever be proven in all the proceedings against me. And that will remain the case.”
Infantino, a fellow Swiss, succeeded Blatter in 2016. Blatter told Die Zeit that he has “no relationship with Infantino” and that the current president “behaved disrespectfully because he has refused any contact with me since his election.” Blatter added that “he only communicates with me via lawyers.”
With Nielsen and Fox releasing the “match only” rating on Wednesday, Sunday’s match had an English- and Spanish-language total combined audience of 26,726,000. The numbers include 4.24 million that watched via streaming.
The updated total narrowly edges the 26.7 million that tuned in to the 2015 Women’s World Cup final, when the US beat Japan, 5-2, in a match that aired in prime time for most of the United States because the tournament was held in Canada.
The previous high for a men’s World Cup match in the US was 26.5 million for the 2014 final between Germany and Argentina, which was on ABC and Univision.
Argentina’s first World Cup title since 1986 was Fox’s most-watched match of the tournament at 17,726,000. That surpasses the 15,491,000 that watched the Americans 0-0 draw with England during group-stage play on Nov. 25.
Sunday’s combined audience was a 33.3 percent increase over the 2018 final, which averaged 17.83 million on Fox and Telemundo. Fox’s audience increased 29.5 percent from four years ago, when France defeated Croatia. AP
Image credits: AP