"Winning is difficult, and winning twice is even more difficult," Rodrigo De Paul said last month. He was talking about football. He might as well have been talking about Argentine soccer's off-field disaster.
As Argentina prepare to defend their 2022 World Cup title at this summer's tournament co-hosted by the USA, Canada, and Mexico, the country's football federation is in freefall. AFA president Claudio Tapia — the man who handed Lionel Scaloni the national team job when almost nobody else would — is now fighting criminal charges, a government feud, and a stadium full of fans who want him gone.
Tapia vs. Milei: a political brawl with a football backdrop
The core of the crisis is a clash between Tapia and President Javier Milei over whether Argentina's member-run clubs should be privatised. AFA has resisted. Milei's government responded by filing a tax complaint against Tapia and other AFA executives, alleging they failed to pay 19 billion pesos — around $13 million — in social security contributions between 2024 and 2025. Formal criminal charges followed in March. Tapia could face two to six years in prison.
AFA calls it a smear campaign. But the optics are damaging either way. The same week charges were filed, Tapia was booed while receiving a plaque on the pitch before Argentina's friendly against Mauritania. That image — the federation president jeered at a national team match — tells you everything about the mood in Buenos Aires right now.
Messi left Argentina after the March friendlies without making a single public statement. Tapia's habit of posting photos with Messi before matches has dried up. Argentine commentators read the silence correctly: the gap between the AFA boss and the squad is widening.
A bloated league and a weak warmup schedule aren't helping
The domestic damage runs deeper than politics. After securing re-election a full year before his term expired, Tapia suspended relegations and expanded the top Argentine league to 30 teams. Most elite European leagues run with 18 to 20. The result, as San Lorenzo supporter Osvaldo Santander put it bluntly: "The schedule is awful. There is no way for anyone to truly boast of being the best." River Plate and Estudiantes La Plata have withdrawn from AFA's executive committee in protest. In the stands, abuse of Tapia is routine.
Then there's the preparation question. Argentina's warmup opponents ahead of the World Cup have included Indonesia, Puerto Rico, Angola, Mauritania, and Zambia — none from Europe, all chosen, critics say, to maximise commercial returns for AFA rather than competitive readiness. Their final two friendlies before the tournament are against Honduras and Iceland, neither of whom qualified. For a side expected to challenge deep into the competition, the lack of meaningful preparation games is a legitimate concern. Argentina's odds to retain the title rest heavily on Messi and a core group of established players — but you don't sharpen a squad for a World Cup by facing teams ranked outside the top 80.
The counterargument exists. Italy won the World Cup in 1982 and 2006 while domestic crises swirled around their federation. Most of Argentina's key players are based in Europe and, as Santander noted, aren't living the daily chaos. De Paul himself asked for unity: "If we want to defend what we've achieved, the whole country has to stand together."
But unity is harder to sell when the man running Argentine football is facing prison.
