Downtown Buenos Aires and its adjacent highways, flecked with blue and white, overflowing with five million supporters (an astronomical figure, in a country of 47 million people); fans prolonging the party and singing at the top of their voices; players triumphantly hoisting their trophies aboard a double-decker bus: the reception of the football world champions in their country on Tuesday 20 December yielded an impressive number of images that make up the mosaic of this historic event. But one is missing: the players on the balcony of the Casa Rosada, the presidential palace. They were invited there. But they did not go there.
Still in Qatar, for lack of confirmation, the national media wondered: would the players go to the headquarters of the executive? The question remained unanswered all day Tuesday, superimposed on the great confusion around the route of the bus along which massed Argentinians who, for some, had made the trip from neighboring provinces, thanks to a holiday decreed in extremis the day before by the government.
During the day, the arrival of the players at the Casa Rosada was announced in the conditional by some media, prompting thousands of supporters to wait for them in the Plaza de Mayo, which adjoins the palace. Argentinian President Alberto Fernandez (center left) was also hoping for them. In vain. The bus had to give up its entire route, depriving the much-desired meeting of the Head of State and the millions of people gathered in a compact crowd on its way to the presidential palace. The vehicle could not clear a safe passage. Two men even managed to jump into the bus from a bridge on the highway, which would have caused the decision to deviate the course.
“Break with the legacy of Maradona”
In the end, the champions never even made it to Casa Rosada, without anyone knowing the reasons or even those responsible for such a decision – the team captain? the players ? the Argentine Football Federation (AFA)? Accusations of poor organization have rocketed. “We are not allowed to greet everyone gathered at the obelisk [le point de ralliement des fans], the same security organizations that were escorting us are not letting us move forward”, complained on Twitter the president of the AFAClaudio Tapia, said «Chiqui».
They don’t let us get to greet all the people who were at the Obelisk, the same security agencies that gave us… https://t.co/DT9y6VXtbo
This missed meeting is a first: never has a champion or finalist football team refused a meeting with the executive, whatever its political side. In 1986, after their victory – the first won in a democracy, the previous one having taken place in the midst of a military dictatorship, in 1978 – the champions, Diego Maradona in the lead, went to the Casa Rosada. “Diego” even hands the cup to the president, Raul Alfonsin (centre left), who kisses it. The champions jubilate on the balcony of the presidential palace, just like in 1990, Maradona always in the front line, when they miss the coronation of a march. President Carlos Menem (right) appears, radiant, with the vice-champions. In 2014, while Argentina returned from Brazil beaten by Germany in the final, another formula was found: President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner (center left) received the players at the headquarters of the Argentine Football Federation.
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