Argentina’s World Champions Face AFA Crisis After World Cup
The glow of Lusail has long faded. Two months after losing the World Cup final to Spain, Argentina are not just licking sporting wounds – they are staring at a full-blown institutional crisis that threatens to spill directly onto the pitch.
What should have been a calm reset for the world champions has turned into open turbulence inside the Argentine Football Association (AFA), with legal battles, financial disputes and an increasingly strained relationship with the players’ greatest icon, Lionel Messi.
Tapia Under Fire, AFA Under Suspicion
In France, RMC doesn’t bother with euphemism. It calls the AFA “in chaos”. At the centre of the storm stands president Claudio “Chiqui” Tapia, facing accusations of money laundering involving figures both inside and outside Argentina.
The legal fight is no longer a distant backdrop. It has started to bleed into the daily life of the national team, raising questions about who will lead it, who will play for it, and even who still trusts those running it.
Scaloni Near the Exit
On the bench, the situation is no calmer. Lionel Scaloni’s contract runs out on 31 December. The man who masterminded the 2022 World Cup triumph and then guided Argentina back to another final now looks closer to goodbye than renewal.
According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, Scaloni is “heading for the exit”, and he is not alone. Several members of his staff also want out, opening the door to a sweeping reshuffle around a group that had, until recently, seemed one of the most stable and united in world football.
For a team built on continuity, that is a jolt. For an association already under scrutiny, it is a warning siren.
Messi Tribute on Ice
On the pitch, the next international window should have been a celebration. Argentina are due to play three friendlies against Burkina Faso, Bolivia and Benin. The plan for October had included a major tribute to Lionel Messi, now retired from international football after signing off as captain and world champion.
That homage is stuck in limbo.
La Gazzetta dello Sport reports that a “big tribute” to Messi is being discussed, but “Leo is not entirely convinced about it”. The relationship between the player and the AFA is described as tense. Messi, it is said, feels he has given the Association enormous value, not only through his performances but also in pure economic terms – prestige, visibility, commercial pull.
The rift is not about nostalgia. It is about money, respect and trust.
Bonuses, Debts and Growing Resentment
The Italian daily highlights another sore point: bonuses. The rewards owed to the players for their recent exploits are under dispute. Inside Argentina, more than one voice insists that the World Cup finalists are, in effect, creditors of the Association – and that the sums still owed to them are significant.
That perception feeds a wider frustration. If the AFA cannot, or will not, settle what is due to the very players who restored the country to the top of the world, why should those same players rush back for low-key friendlies?
Put simply: the bond between the dressing room and the boardroom is fraying.
Europe-Based Stars Reluctant
Against that backdrop, enthusiasm for the upcoming friendlies is thin. La Gazzetta dello Sport notes that the European-based stars are anything but keen on flying back to Argentina to face “three national teams whose names begin with the letter B, and it is not Brazil.”
The line is cutting, but it captures the mood. These are not marquee fixtures. They are now being played under a cloud.
Lautaro Martinez, Julian Alvarez and Alexis Mac Allister are among those who could sit out the next international break. None of them has publicly declared a boycott, but the combination of internal tension, unpaid bonuses and uncertainty over Scaloni’s future makes their absence a real possibility.
A Champion in the Dark
Argentina should be moving through this cycle with swagger: world champions, back-to-back World Cup finalists, a generation of players in their prime. Instead, the story is dominated by courtrooms, boardroom intrigue and doubts over who will even turn up for the next camp.
The team that conquered the world now finds itself wondering something far more basic: with the AFA under investigation, the coach edging towards the door and Messi unconvinced about even attending his own tribute, who is actually steering the future of Argentine football?
