Argentina players jeered by crowd before Paris Olympics soccer quarterfinal against France
Fri, Aug 2, 2024
Soccer News (AP)
BORDEAUX, France (AP) - Argentina players were roundly jeered when they entered the field to face France in the Paris Olympics soccer quarterfinal on Friday.
The first few Argentina players came onto the field at Bordeaux Stadium to booing around 8:10 p.m., almost an hour before kickoff. The stadium music system then drowned out much of the jeering.
Argentina's national anthem was also met with a chorus of jeers and whistles, and home fans booed Argentina's players after the kickoff when they touched the ball.
A racism scandal has heightened tensions, following a video of Argentina players singing an offensive song about French players of African heritage as they celebrated their Copa America victory last month.
Earlier Friday, Argentina's handball team was jeered as it entered the South Paris Arena arena, but the booing subsided quickly at the venue.
Last week, Argentina's men's rugby sevens players were raucously and constantly booed by a Stade de France crowd of 69,000 during a quarterfinal against the home team.
Despite the off-field tensions leading into this soccer quarterfinal, security measures were not increased and the local police prefecture said security forces stuck to the initial plan.
Over 400 police and gendarmerie officers were deployed on for the match, in addition to 100 military personnel, and security forces used drones to help make the event safe.
The atmosphere outside the stadium was anything but tense, however. Fans of both nations mingled with each other without any signs of hostility, some with Argentina flags or jerseys with soccer superstar Lionel Messi's name on the back.
The match itself was a rematch French fans have been waiting for since Argentina's dramatic penalty shootout win in the 2022 World Cup final. But because it's primarily an Under-23 tournament, superstars like Messi and Kylian Mbappe were not playing.
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- Here's what to watch as the track and field competition kicks off.
- Take a look at everything else to watch on Friday.
- See AP's top photos from the 2024 Paris Olympics.
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France won its only Olympic title in 1984 - the year it also won the European Championship - while Argentina won it back-to-back in 2004, with current coach Javier Mascherano in the side, and in 2008, with Mascherano and Messi.
France fans made up most of the 42,000 crowd. Bordeaux is a six-time French champion that has now been relegated two divisions to the fourth-tier amateur league by France's soccer finance watchdog, DNCG, after filing for bankruptcy.
France great Zinedine Zidane burst onto the scene with Bordeaux, known as "Les Girondins" by soccer fans around France, earning his first international cap in 1994.
He also starred in the club's run to 1996 UEFA Cup final alongside Bixente Lizarazu and Christophe Dugarry, who both went onto win the World Cup with Zidane in 1998 and the European Championship in 2000.
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