Argentina's World Cup mutiny has reportedly turned into a players' coup

Senior reporter

Sat, Jun 23, 2018, 8:05 PM

In the wee hours of Friday morning, after their calamitous loss to Croatia, Argentina’s World Cup stars reportedly tried to engineer a mutiny. At the time, it appeared to have come to nothing. Manager Jorge Sampaoli was still in charge.

Twenty-four hours later, though, a full-on coup d’etat is reportedly underway.

TyC Sports, one of the most prominent – though not always accurate – TV outlets in Argentina, reported Saturday afternoon that Argentinean players are no longer following Sampaoli’s orders:

Now on @TyCSports reports that the squad have broken their relation with Jorge Sampaoli and the coach is no longer making decisions. Por dios pic.twitter.com/5CZuw2JejD
— Peter Coates (@golazoargentino) June 23, 2018

Argentina players had held meetings at their base camp hours after a disastrous 3-0 loss to Croatia and asked for Sampaoli’s immediate removal as manager, according to reports on Thursday night. TyC Sports had reported that the national team’s current general manager, Jorge Burruchaga, could take control of the team.

No official change has been made, but now TyC reports that the president of Argentina’s soccer federation, Claudio Tapia, is supporting the players in their attempt to wrest control of the team away from Sampaoli.

AFA president Claudio Tapia backing the players in their take over according to these reports
— Peter Coates (@golazoargentino) June 23, 2018

Other reports, however, suggested that Tapia, the coaching staff and players all met on Saturday and decided to band together, move forward, and focus on Tuesday’s pivotal game against Nigeria.

Sampaoli, who took over last year with Argentina struggling during World Cup qualifying, drew harsh criticism for his tactics in the 3-0 loss to Croatia. He switched formations – to a shape that didn’t suit Lionel Messi – and his personnel. The result was disastrous.

But Argentina is still a slight favorite to advance as the runner-up in Group D after Nigeria beat Iceland on Friday.