When the world gets closer.

We help you see farther.

Sign up to our expressly international daily newsletter.

Already a subscriber? Log in .

You've reached your limit of one free article.

Get unlimited access to Worldcrunch

You can cancel anytime .

SUBSCRIBERS BENEFITS

Exclusive International news coverage

Ad-free experience NEW

Weekly digital Magazine NEW

9 daily & weekly Newsletters

Access to Worldcrunch archives

Free trial

30-days free access, then $2.90
per month.

Annual Access BEST VALUE

$19.90 per year, save $14.90 compared to monthly billing.save $14.90.

Subscribe to Worldcrunch
Argentina

Hard Times And Hooliganism In Soccer-Crazy Argentina

Rowdy fans added to the annals of soccer stupidity by forcing organizers to cancel the hugely anticipated Copa Libertadores final in Buenos Aires.

River Plate fans looking at an empty pitch
River Plate fans looking at an empty pitch
Reinaldo Spitaletta

-OpEd-

BOGOTÁ — In Argentina, people embrace soccer (and suffer because of it) as if it were a religion. Or some kind of escapist drug, perhaps. The sport one French academic and writer termed "intelligence in movement" is ubiquitous. It is fervor itself. A burning-hot fever. A passion that, in some cases, prompts people to do stupid things — or worse. Sometimes it makes fans want to simply obliterate anyone wearing a rival jersey.

The great Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges himself observed that soccer is "popular because stupidity is popular." Indeed, there have been plenty of bone-headed episodes in and outside soccer stadiums. And let's not forget the 1978 World Cup, which Argentina — ruled at the time by a brutal military dictatorship — hosted, and won. That may have been the darkest moment of all in Argentine soccer history.

While the dictator Jorge Videla celebrated the victory and the crowds screamed their lungs out in El Monumental, the Buenos Aires stadium that's also home to the popular River Plate team, close by political prisoners were being tortured and "disappeared." The shouting over goals that day overwhelmed the brave protests of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo clamoring to know what had become of their children. That bloody cup was not just part of Argentina's history — or infamy — but also of the murky ties between soccer and politics. It has always been a sinister, manipulative marriage.

Soccer is "popular because stupidity is popular."

And now, decades later, we're confronted with a new, shameful episode. Editor's note: On Nov. 24, River Plate fans attacked a bus carrying players of the rival club Boca Juniors. What was supposed to be a glorious day for the country — the first time Argentina's most storied franchises met in the final of the Copa Libertadores, a tournament featuring Latin America"s top soccer clubs — ended in dismay, as organizers were forced to suspend the match. The South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) has now announced that the game will be moved to Madrid, Spain, and take place on Dec. 9.

The violence and subsequent suspension of a game that one local television station described, in somewhat exaggerated terms, as the "world championship," are indicative of acute social tensions in Argentina. They also demonstrate the kind of alienation that results when soccer is more business than entertainment. When it divides more than it unites. When it becomes a matter of "life and death." When it serves as a mechanism for controlling the masses.

Control is, of course relative, as Saturday's incidents showed. The city police thought — inexplicably — that it would be a good idea to let the Boca Juniors bus drive to El Monumental through streets jam packed with rival fans. More than a century's rivalry between the sides (which would be fine had it been civilized), is no trivial matter, and we can add to that the increasing number of low-lives among fans, people who aren't so much admirers of a soccer club as they are louts and criminals.

What had been billed as a "world championship" ended up being a barbaric mess.

The great Maradona, the soccer legend who remains a mythical figure in the capital, politicized the pre-match incident by blaming President Mauricio Macri. He called him "the worst president ever," and commented on how unhappy Argentines have become under Macri's neoliberal, "far-right" regime. "What's happening in my country is awful," he said. "We respect nothing. The president tricked so many people, promising to change this and now we're worse off than before ... You're afraid to go see a match. There is theft everywhere, but this is the change people voted for."

"But what does Macri care? He's always been a millionaire's son," Maradona added as a parting shot. "What does it matter to him if some five-year-old kid in Lomas Zamora a slum district has enough to eat."

All of this hand-wringing over the attack on the Boca bus is another sign of the rotten state of things in the land of tango and great writers. Living standards are in a free-fall, and every day another sector or union joins the social struggle. There have been mass protests over joblessness, and against the spending cuts, de-industrialization and other economic measures that the government, in accordance with the International Monetary Fund, has imposed.

What had been billed as a "world championship" — and may very well be canceled all together — ended up being a barbaric mess, and on the eve, no less, of the next G20 summit, which takes places this weekend (Nov. 30-Dec. 1) in Buenos Aires. Little wonder that Marcelo Gallardo, River's technical director, told Fox Sports to tone things down a bit. It was never a "world championship," he said. Just the final of the now much-tarnished Copa Libertadores.

Perhaps Borges was right in asking himself how an "ignoble, disagreeable, aggressive and essentially commercial" sport had come to win itself so many devotees worldwide. And as last week's events show, that irrational fanaticism can lead to a whole host of other problems.

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

Future

Livestream Shopping Is Huge In China — Will It Fly Elsewhere?

Streaming video channels of people shopping has been booming in China, and is beginning to win over customers abroad as a cheap and cheerful way of selling products to millions of consumers glued to the screen.

A A female volunteer promotes spring tea products via on-line live streaming on a pretty mountain surrounded by tea plants.

In Beijing, selling spring tea products via on-line live streaming.

Xinhua / ZUMA
Gwendolyn Ledger

SANTIAGOTikTok, owned by Chinese tech firm ByteDance, has spent more than $500 million to break into online retailing. The app, best known for its short, comical videos, launched TikTok Shop in August, aiming to sell Chinese products in the U.S. and compete with other Chinese firms like Shein and Temu.

Tik Tok Shop will have three sections, including a live or livestream shopping channel, allowing users to buy while watching influencers promote a product.

This choice was strategic: in the past year, live shopping has become a significant trend in online retailing both in the U.S. and Latin America. While still an evolving technology, in principle, it promises good returns and lower costs.

Chilean Carlos O'Rian Herrera, co-founder of Fira Onlive, an online sales consultancy, told América Economía that live shopping has a much higher catchment rate than standard website retailing. If traditional e-commerce has a rate of one or two purchases per 100 visits to your site, live shopping can hike the ratio to 19%.

Live shopping has thrived in China and the recent purchases of shopping platforms in some Latin American countries suggests firms are taking an interest. In the United States, live shopping generated some $20 billion in sales revenues in 2022, according to consultants McKinsey. This constituted 2% of all online sales, but the firm believes the ratio may become 20% by 2026.

Keep reading...Show less

The latest