France Players Accused of Celebrating Olympics Win in Front of Argentina Families
France’s increasingly hostile rivalry with Argentina spilled over after their Olympics quarter-final grudge match on Friday night, with several on-pitch confrontations followed by players running down the tunnel to continue their arguments.
The ongoing dissension between the two nations started after Argentina’s Copa America victory back in July, which led to celebrations from some of the La Albiceleste squad on the team bus featuring racist chants towards French players, pointing the finger at their African heritages.
Nevertheless, while the storm appeared to have become somewhat settled after public outrage led to in-house conversations and the news of potential punishments, the Paris 2024 Olympics have since proven there’s still no love lost between the two 2022 World Cup finalists.
Police entered the stands to prevent disorder between fans while squads and staff from both countries clashed for several minutes at the end of France’s 1-0 win. France’s Enzo Millot was shown a red card after the game for his part in the fracas and further punishments may loom when the chaotic video evidence has been unpicked, with senior players – such as Nicolas Otamendi – once again coming out to condemn the feud.
What Nicolas Otamendi Said
France players accused of coming back out and celebrating in front of families
As reported by the Telegraph, it was nearly a perfect night for France. ‘A win which eliminated their rivals with a goal scored by a player with a Congolese father, a riposte to the racism which emerged with Enzo Fernandez’s video after the Copa America, as Jean-Philippe Mateta headed in Michael Olise’s corner.’
But the unsavoury scenes that followed highlight a rivalry – which was originally built upon the foundations of tit-for-tat silverware pursuit between two of football’s juggernaut nations – snowballing into a minor international crisis, overshadowing Argentina’s president Javier Milei meeting Emmanuel Macron for the first time two weeks ago.
After the post-match feud, one of the more senior players at this year’s Games, Nicolas Otamendi, had his say on the rivalry. He said: “There was one guy.. Bal.. Ba.. whose name I don’t even know (Loïc Badé). If he wants to celebrate, he can come and sort it out with us.
“They went and celebrated in front of our family members. If they want, they can come celebrate to us, players, where we are, and we can sort it out there and talk about whatever we need to talk about.”
France Players React
There are two sides to the story
As much as current reports suggest that France provoked the wild post-match scenes and fanned the flames of an ongoing problem with their celebrations, there are always two sides to a story, and interviews by several French players after the quarter-final would suggest no party was entirely innocent.
“It was an important match because we felt insulted, all of France felt insulted, and we ended up as the winners of the game,” Loic Bade said. “They insulted throughout the game, I don’t know what they were saying because they were speaking Spanish, but they were gesturing.”
