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#5 Rampant Mismanagement within the Argentina Football Association
The Argentine Football Association (AFA) has consistently bungled key management decisions of late. For one, they let go of head coach Jorge Sampaoli post the 2018 World Cup debacle, after they had just given him one year to work on improving the national side.
The fact that he had proven himself in International football many times over, including winning Chile their first ever Copa America, was completely ignored. The Brazilian Football Federation, on the other hand, retained their manager Tite even after a disappointing World Cup as they believe in a more long term team building strategy.
In Brazil, it is the best Brazilian managers from the domestic leagues or Europe that usually take the helm of the national side. It is a matter of pride and prestige. The Argentina Football Association's mismanagement is so rampant that the fan favorite to replace Sampaoli in 2018, Marcelo Gallardo turned down the offer.
The two-time Copa Libertadores winning manager of River Plate was reportedly not too uncomfortable working in tandem with the AFA and their much-maligned President Claudio Tapia. Tapia was also unsuccessful in his attempts to bring in superstar Europe-based Argentine managers like Tottenham Hotspur's Mauricio Pochettino or Atletico Madrid's Diego Simeone.
Argentina legend Diego Maradona was especially harsh in his criticism of the AFA and President Tapia Argentina's 3-1 defeat last week against Venezuela. The legend remarked:
"Those who are inept and are running the AFA thought that they would win against Venezuela? Venezuela is a proper team and Argentina came into this through the window, not the front door, because they betrayed and constantly lied to people."
Argentina has seen four different managers at the helm in the last 5 years. a fact that has definitely contributed to their inconsistent form and their failure to establish a winning identity as a team.
