FIFA has spoken out regarding the possibility of replaying the World Cup final between Argentina and Spain after a petition attracted nearly 100,000 signatures from fans.
Lionel Messi and the Argentina national team suffered a 0-1 defeat against Spain in the final taking place on July 19 at MetLife Stadium (East Rutherford, New Jersey). Ferran Torres’s extra-time goal helped La Roja reach the pinnacle of world football for the second time in history, while extending their successful run following their European championship.
The match took place in a tense atmosphere with numerous controversial situations. Enzo Fernandez was sent off after two yellow cards for dangerous fouls, while several refereeing decisions left Argentine players and fans dissatisfied.
After the final whistle, tensions erupted into a brawl. Midfielder Leandro Paredes was recorded striking Gavi, while numerous Argentine players and coaching staff members also engaged in heated arguments following the defeat.
Immediately following the match, an Argentine fan named Gisela Sanchez created a petition on Change.org calling on FIFA to hold a replay of the final. As of Friday morning, the petition has gathered 95,710 signatures from those agreeing with the view that Slovenian referee Slavko Vincic and the officiating team made multiple decisions directly affecting the outcome of the match.
In the contents of the petition, Sanchez argued that FIFA needs to review all controversial situations and unusual signs in the officiating. According to her, this is “not just a matter of justice for Argentina, but also relates to the future of world football.”
Even so, the possibility of FIFA accepting this request is practically non-existent. Under current regulations, petitions on platforms like Change.org carry no legal value or binding effect on FIFA. Whether signed by tens or even hundreds of thousands of people, the result of a World Cup match cannot be changed simply because fans disagree with the referee’s decisions.
Matches are only considered for a replay under extraordinary circumstances, usually involving severe breaches of the laws of the game or procedural errors. Therefore, even if the petition continues to attract more signatures, it will not alter the result of the final.
Notably, coach Lionel Scaloni did not blame referee Slavko Vincic either. The Argentine manager acknowledged that Spain was the better team in the final. Meanwhile, the futures of both Scaloni and Messi with the national team remain up in the air, while center-back Nicolas Otamendi has officially announced his retirement from international football.
Nor is this the only petition to surface following the World Cup. Another campaign attracted even more attention by calling on FIFA to permanently ban Argentina from participating in major future tournaments.
This petition was published on the “Argentina Out” website and has drawn over 23 million signatures from 170 countries in less than a week. The initiator even wrote: “FIFA ignored us, but Spain did it for us. Thank you Spain.”
Although currently closed, this campaign still came very close to the Guinness World Record for the petition with the most signatures globally. The current record belongs to the “Jubilee 2000” campaign, launched in 1997 to call for the cancellation of massive debts for the world’s poorest nations. That campaign gathered 24,319,181 signatures across 166 countries.
Throughout their World Cup journey, Argentina also found themselves at the center of considerable controversy. Many opposing fans felt that the South American side received favoritism from referees. In addition, the behavior of several Argentine players angered other teams, including England’s Jude Bellingham, who publicly criticized Valentin Barco following the semifinal.
