Argentina: the controversy over Messi’s latest match goes on. Benin too complain of economy travel, dilapidated hotels and problems of every kind. Who gets the money?
Overnight on Tuesday 6 into Wednesday 7, Italian time, the whole of Argentina will come to a standstill. That is when Lionel Messi's last official match in the shirt of the Argentina Seleccion will take place. The last dance, in an atmosphere unlike any other, though not without controversy.
After the scandal surrounding the penultimate match, when Burkina Faso's players refused to travel to Buenos Aires and Argentina ended up facing the African nation's Under-23 side, controversy is also mounting over the Benin federation, the designated opponents for La Pulce's final outing in the albiceleste shirt.
What happened with Burkina Faso
On Friday morning, Burkina Faso's national team refused to leave from the airport in Morocco, where they were due to board a scheduled economy flight paid for by Argentina and travel to Buenos Aires for the friendly against the Seleccion. The players would not go, and Burkina Faso's football federation rushed to persuade the Under-23s to take their place, cancelling the friendly against Mali Under-23 at the last minute. The plane had been due to land in Argentina at 15:00, with kick-off set for 19:00.
Controversy also from Benin
Anticipation is building in Argentina for Messi's final appearance on home soil. At the same time, attention has turned to the Argentine Football Association, who keep lining up friendlies against African opponents from small, struggling federations. The reason is purely financial because the match fee is minimal, The Guardian reports, and that lets the federation maximise the money going into its own coffers.
Benin, though, are also dealing with major disruption, according to the outlet. To begin with, nobody changed the flight arrangements, and a standard scheduled flight left people sick and even caused fainting, including for a member of the national team's video staff.
On top of that, Benin are complaining about the run-down hotels chosen for the players, where there is not even a weights room or anywhere to do strength work. One floor of the hotel has no hot water at all, and even the only upside, the sauna, is out of order.
So Benin's question to AFA, and to the wider world, is this: for Messi's last great appearance, who is pocketing all the money?
