Argentina oficialmente organiza el mundial Sub-20 (SPA-ENG)

Argentina officially organizes the U-20 World Cup

In a previous publication, I had mentioned the possibility of this happening, it all started a few weeks ago when FIFA removed that responsibility from Indonesia due to the request of its authorities to exclude Israel from the competition, a team classified to play the U20 World Cup that that South Asian country had to organize; all this mess due to the alignment of the country with the Palestinian cause.

Of course, FIFA did not like the intervention of politics in football and reacted as quickly and effectively as possible, taking away the organization of the World Cup.

Very quickly reflexes, the president of the Argentine Football Association (AFA), Mr. Tapia, who is also going through his best moment after obtaining the world title by the national team in Qatar, offered Argentina to be the venue ensuring that the schedule would be respected, quite tight and imminent by the way, given that the tournament will begin on May 20 of this year and will last until June 11, the date scheduled for the final match and the consecration of the champion.

FIFA authorities are in the country inspecting possible stadiums and have already given their approval despite the fact that a couple of them still need to be reviewed. The conditions imposed by Gianni Infantino and his officials are two, the first that the stadiums to be used during the World Cup are not used simultaneously in matches of the local league that is in full development and that for reasons of calendars and international competition commitments, it cannot be postponed; The second, and probably the most important, is that the national government endorse its implementation and commit to providing the necessary funds for its implementation.

We all know that dollars are not abundant in the country and the economic situation is dire, but a little distraction is always good anyway and national officials have ensured that the necessary funds will be available. It is not known from whom they will be taken away, this is like a short sheet.

In the footballing order, this decision by FIFA brings some relief to the role of having been eliminated from the competition early by not having been able to qualify in the last South American tournament. As the organizing country, we acquired the right to participate in the desks, something that we could not achieve on the pitch.

The confirmation of Javier Mascherano as coach was surprising given the poor performance in South America, however, they added Leandro Stillitano as reinforcement to the coaching staff, a coach with a little background who in his first foray as main coach in one of the most important teams in the A country such as Independiente de Avellaneda, was dismissed after a few games for not having been able to achieve positive results. Perhaps Tapia thinks that having kept a coach with almost no experience in the senior team and in light of the results he can repeat with the sub-20. If so, we will have to surrender to his sense of smell and his management of the main governing body of local football will last forever as the late Julio Grondona did, although the background does not make us happy in light of what happened in his time.

Anyway, on May 20 the ball will begin to roll, teams from all over the world will compete for the most important title at the youth level and we, immersed in a sport that we are passionate about, will forget for a while how we got here.