‘Rifts began to appear’: Why many Latin Americans want Spain to beat Argentina in the World Cup final
Shifting Loyalties: Why Latin American Fans May Back Spain Over Argentina
Rifts began to appear - Julia Duailibi, a prominent Brazilian journalist and columnist, typically focuses on political commentary in her regular feature for O Globo, one of Brazil's most influential newspapers. However, last Thursday she chose a different subject entirely, exploring her reasons for potentially withholding support from neighboring Argentina during the upcoming World Cup final. On the morning following Argentina's thrilling semi-final triumph against England, she shared her thoughts online. "I have always been an admirer of the hermanos [as Brazilians affectionately call Argentinians] and would have loved to cheer on a fellow South American team," she wrote. "But I admit that the racist scenes involving a minority of the fans, and the silence of the majority on the pitch, turned my stomach."
Her position represents a broader trend emerging across Latin America, where numerous individuals have expressed preference for Spain in Sunday's championship match. While racist behavior by certain Argentinian supporters has been highlighted as a contributing factor, it is certainly not the sole explanation for this shift in allegiance.
A Changing Landscape of Regional Support
"In the past, people were more likely to support a Latin American team against a European one, but that has changed quite a lot in recent years," explained Nicolás Cabrera, an Argentinian sociologist and anthropologist who has dedicated his professional life to examining football supporters throughout Latin America. According to Cabrera, this traditional pattern was historically limited primarily to Argentina's classic local adversaries—most notably Brazil, but also Uruguay and Chile. More recently, however, this sentiment has expanded to include supporters from Mexico, Colombia, and Ecuador as well.
"Rifts began to appear for several reasons," noted Cabrera, who has resided in Rio de Janeiro for the past decade, working as both a university lecturer and researcher. One significant factor is Argentina's remarkable success as Latin America's premier national team over recent years. The nation has reached three of the past four World Cup finals and secured victory in at least one of those tournaments. Meanwhile, neighboring countries have experienced considerably earlier eliminations from the tournament. Brazil, for instance, has not advanced to the World Cup final since capturing their historic fifth championship in 2002.
The Messi Factor and Growing Rivalries
Argentina also boasts the legendary Lionel Messi, who has been collecting trophies and capturing global hearts for approximately twenty years. Even at thirty-nine years of age, Messi remains one of the tournament's most exceptional performers. Cabrera identifies another element fueling this growing division: the increasing frequency of matches between clubs through the Copa Libertadores continental competition. Until the 1990s, this tournament featured approximately twenty teams; today, including preliminary stages, nearly fifty clubs participate.
"As our teams play each other more often, fans start winding each other up," he observed. Social media platforms have additionally played a crucial role in this transformation. "Hate speech, racism, xenophobia and discrimination began to circulate in ways that had previously been more marginal and less visible," Cabrera explained.
It has become nearly impossible to witness a match between Argentine and Brazilian clubs without at least one video surfacing showing an Argentinian supporter making monkey gestures toward Brazilians. Yet this phenomenon is hardly novel. In 1920, just before a friendly encounter between the two nations, an Argentinian publication released a cartoon portraying Brazilian players as monkeys. More recently, several Argentinian tourists have faced arrest in Brazil for what constitutes "racial insult" under Brazilian legislation.
From Streets to Social Media
While celebrating his nation's victory over England, one Argentinian traveler was captured on camera in Bahia, a northeastern Brazilian state, making monkey gestures at a Black Brazilian citizen. He avoided arrest and has reportedly already traveled back to Argentina. Previously, such incidents remained largely confined to streets and stadium stands during Copa Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana fixtures. Now they have spilled over into World Cup competitions, including the controversy involving American influencer IShowSpeed during Argentina's match against Cape Verde. This situation ultimately motivated Duailibi to step away from her usual political coverage to address the Argentina situation.
"I know Brazil is not a model in this respect either, that we still have a long way to go when it comes to racism, but at least our legal framework is far more effective than theirs," she stated. Argentina currently lacks legislation that explicitly criminalizes racist behavior.
"Rifts began to appear for several reasons," said Cabrera, who has lived in Rio de Janeiro for the past 10 years, where he is a university lecturer and researcher.
These controversies extend well beyond Brazilian borders and stadium terraces. During celebrations of their 2024 Copa América championship, Argentinian players were recorded chanting racist and homophobic songs targeting members of the French squad they had defeated in the 2022 World Cup final. Within the current tournament, a prominent rightwing Argentinian journalist publicly declared on a television program that he hated Mexicans "with all his soul." Days prior to this statement, he had also asserted that, during a match between Mexico and Argentina, Mexican supporters had behaved inappropriately.
As the final approaches, these accumulated tensions suggest that Latin American football fans may be reevaluating their traditional loyalties, potentially creating one of the most unexpected dynamics in World Cup history.