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The original was posted on /r/soccer by /u/Sparky-moon on 2026-02-24 05:40:43+00:00.
Original Title: The invisible demon of racism in Argentine football: “Here, no one would say that Prestianni is a racist.” The Prestianni-Vinicius affair, offensive chants against French team players: is Argentine football riddled with racism? The answer is obviously complex, between denial, cultural difference.
The cloud has clearly stopped at the border. “The Vinicius-Prestianni affair has had little media coverage here,” admits Javier Bundio, a social sciences researcher at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) and Conicet (National Scientific and Technical Research Council, the Argentine equivalent of the CNRS). The prevailing view here is that it’s not clear.”
The repetition of these incidents inevitably raises the question: is racism more prevalent in Argentine football than elsewhere?
Obviously, it’s not that simple. “Argentine citizens are not discriminatory,” argues former Nantes defender Nestor Fabbri. “They have welcomed people from all countries, and our constitution stipulates that anyone living on our soil is welcome.” "
“I don’t think there is more racism than before,” says Diego Murzi, a doctor of social sciences and researcher at Conicet. “What’s happening is that this issue has been put on the agenda of international bodies, FIFA, then UEFA, and to a lesser extent Conmebol. Something curious is happening in Argentina with regard to racism, and not specifically in football. In the social imagination, not only do Argentines not recognize themselves as racist, but they don’t even recognize that there is racism in Argentina. This is different from the problem of violence, which is recognized as a problem. In Argentina, no one would say that Prestianni is a racist. They think he did it in the context of a football game where, in Argentina, it is accepted that you can say anything and everything.”
“The logic of fan culture in Argentina explains why the line between folklore and racism is regularly crossed.”
Javier Bundio, social sciences researcher at the University of Buenos Aires
“Football stirs up a lot of passion,” Fabbri acknowledges. “But what happens on the field should stay on the field. If I were still playing and the game had to be stopped every time someone called me a fag**t, we wouldn’t be able to play anymore. How many times have I been told that someone fucked my wife… I think there are more important things.”
“The logic of fan culture in Argentina explains why the line between folklore and racism is regularly crossed,” Javier Bundio continues. “There is a culturally accepted idea in the country that you can sing absolutely anything in a football stadium as long as it celebrates a sense of belonging, undermines the rival, and helps the club you support win the game: homophobia, racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism… Many people, who would never express themselves this way outside the stadium, are unaware of the impact of their words. I think what happened with Prestianni reflects this. Perhaps what he thought was: “What can hurt Vinicius the most? Racism. So I’ll get him sent off the field that way.” It’s a very difficult logic to deconstruct and eradicate, as it is deeply rooted in the culture. But this isn’t folklore, it’s racism. We have to work very hard to put an end to it.”
“The word ‘black’ has no negative connotation here (in Argentina).”
Diego Murzi, Doctor of Social Sciences and researcher at Conicet.
However, there are no fan groups in elite clubs with confirmed links to the far right. It is also worth mentioning a semantic issue, which is significant because it is more sensitive in Europe than in Argentina. “The word ‘black’ has no negative connotations here,” explains Murzi. “The English Premier League sanctioned Cavani for saying ‘Gracias negrito’ to a friend on social media. But in Argentina and Uruguay, it is sometimes used affectionately.”
Bundio adds: "The word ‘black’ has multiple meanings in Argentina. 1. It can have an affectionate meaning: many people, myself included, are nicknamed ‘Negro’ without having any African heritage. 2. It can refer to people perceived as being of African origin. 3. It can refer to racialized people’s indigenous roots and poverty, in a pejorative sense. "
“What exists in Argentina is a form of social racism,” Murzi continues. “Black” is used to refer to internal migrants, descendants of indigenous peoples, mainly from the north of the country, but also from neighboring countries such as Bolivia, Peru, and Paraguay.
Milei, an inflammatory president
The problem goes far beyond football and the current situation in the country, with the election in December 2023 of far-right president Javier Milei doing nothing to help matters.
“The authorities’ response (to racism in football) is currently non-existent,” says Julian Martinez, a political science graduate from the University of Buenos Aires who worked for more than ten years for the Argentine National Institute Against Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racism (INADI). The current climate even tends to exacerbate racism, classism (belonging or not to a social class) and xenophobia. Milei’s government has abolished INADI, along with other programs dedicated to combating discrimination. He and his supporters have a very negative attitude towards the working class, migrants, people with disabilities, women, the elderly, the LGBTQIA+ community, and so on.