In Argentine soccer, a passion that is beyond doubt often leads to the irrational and esoteric, such as elevating its main idols to the category of gods or creating a Maradonian Church. In the same way, cabals or superstitions are also the order of the day. From the most modest fan to the most opulent, or even the country's president has superstitions about him before an important game, like the World Cup final this Sunday against France in Qatar.
Some 40,000 Argentines have traveled to the Arab country to support the albiceleste in one of the World Cup matches and, in recent days, many of them have traveled expressly with the dream of seeing their team lift the World Cup for the third time in the story, even though they don't even have a ticket to enter the Lusail Stadium.
However, a fan with the ticket and the trip paid will not attend: the Argentine president, the Peronist Alberto Fernández. The official reason for the absence is that "soccer and politics do not mix", according to the Casa Rosada. The president does not want to obscure the prominence of the team or be accused of appropriating the image of the albiceleste, although it is very common for Argentine rulers to try to take over the national symbols. And the selection is one.
But all Argentines know that the real reason why Fernández does not travel to Qatar is because he does not want to be jinxed. Mufa, as they say in Argentina to those who bring bad luck.
The origin of this superstition must be found in 1990, when Argentina was governed by Carlos Menem, also a Peronist. On June 8 of that year, the albiceleste, current champion in Mexico'86, debuted in the World Cup in Italy against Cameroon. Irrationally, the unexpected defeat (1-0) of the favorite against the African team was attributed by the Argentines to Menem, who thus consolidated the fame of mufa that had been created at the beginning of his government, in 1989, after the death of two of its ministers. That of Economy, Miguel Roig, and that of Health, Julio Corzo. The first, of a heart attack; the second, in a plane crash.
Since then, no other Argentine president has traveled to a World Cup. They always made some excuse, of course, they didn't say they didn't want to be jinxed. Even when Argentina reached the 2014 final in Brazil against Germany, then-president Cristina Fernández was not at the Maracana in Rio de Janeiro.
The excuse then was a sore throat, although that ailment had not caused Fernández to paralyze his official activity in Argentina. "I have been going through severe acute pharyngolaryngitis for more than a week," wrote the Kirchnerist leader -now the country's vice president- to her Brazilian counterpart, Dilma Rousseff, to justify her absence from a match that the albiceleste would also end up losing to Germany ( 1-0).
Although he is no longer president, the former liberal president Mauricio Macri was also accused of being a mufa in the world present. Macri, a millionaire and a great soccer fan who came to preside over Boca Juniors, was appointed executive president of the FIFA Foundation in 2020. As a function of that position, he has witnessed in Qatar all the matches of the Argentine national team and many others. As happened to Menem in 1990, the unexpected defeat against Saudi Arabia (1-2) in Argentina's debut in Qatar, was attributed to Macri, despite the fact that later the team won the rest of the games and the former president also won them. saw sitting in the box.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, confirmed his presence this Sunday in Qatar and it has emerged that he chatted with his Argentine counterpart to ask him to both watch the game together. However, except for a last-minute surprise that he breaks all the cabals, Fernández will not be in the final, although the Casa Rosada does not officially close the door and say that "no decision has been made."
Apparently, the Peronist president intends to follow the same superstitious ritual of the entire World Cup that he applied after the defeat against Saudi Arabia: watch the game in absolute solitude at his residence. That is what his environment has explained, although he has distributed some family photos on his social networks, dressed in the Argentine shirt.
At a press conference, the spokeswoman for the Casa Rosada, Gabriela Cerruti, insisted this week: “Football and politics do not mix. This is something that the players are carrying out, especially their coaching staff; therefore, the government does not get involved, it has nothing to do with any of all that is happening, nor are we interested in mixing football and politics, we believe that this should be enjoyed by the public”.
Alberto Fernández does not want to bear the responsibility of losing the World Cup. He doesn't want to be a mufa.
