Last-minute chaos! Argentina's friendly with Burkina Faso on the brink of collapse
Lionel Scaloni's side has enough problems this week without this one. With the match supposed to light up the Monumental, the visitors have simply failed to board a plane.
Details: Argentina's friendly against Burkina Faso, scheduled for Saturday, October 3 at 21:00 local time at the Monumental in Buenos Aires, is in danger of being cancelled. According to reports on Thursday evening, with just over 24 hours until kickoff, the Burkina Faso delegation is still in Morocco and has not departed for Argentina. The African side is said to have delayed its journey because the Argentine Football Association did not provide the conditions that had been agreed. ESPN has already listed the fixture as cancelled, although the AFA has not yet issued an official statement.
The fiasco is all the more embarrassing because the game had already survived one soap opera: it was originally announced for the Monumental, then analysed for a switch to the Bombonera, before returning to River's stadium with approval for a full house. Burkina Faso, forced to play its home matches in Morocco because of the security situation back home, had beaten the Central African Republic 1:0 in Casablanca on Tuesday and was expected to fly straight from there to Buenos Aires. Argentina, meanwhile, cruised past Bolivia 4:0 in Córdoba on Wednesday in its first match since the World Cup final, with Lionel Scaloni planning to rotate his XI against the Burkinabé to test players like Matías Soulé, Valentín Barco and Franco Mastantuono. If the game falls through, the federation will face awkward questions just days before the match that actually matters to the country: the October 6 reunion with Benin, which will double as Lionel Messi's official farewell, for which tickets have already been sold at record prices and the number 10 shirt has been frozen in his honour.
It's worth noting that friendlies against modest opposition are big business for the AFA: visiting teams receive no appearance fee or gate share, meaning ticket, sponsorship and broadcast revenue all stay in Buenos Aires. A cancelled fixture is lost money, which explains why federation officials were working through the night to salvage the game.
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Miguel Solomons
Dailysports's expert
