In the 1st round of the men's soccer group stage Group B match at the 2024 Paris Olympics, the Argentine national team was defeated by the Moroccan national team 1-2. The match, which was interrupted for up to two hours due to fans throwing debris and charging the field, sparked widespread attention and discussion.ESPN's post-game post has a detailed rundown and look at the chaos.
In the 106th minute of the match, Argentina's Medina scored a goal to make the score 2-2, however, the goal sparked anger among the Moroccan fans at the scene as they believed Argentina had scored the goal in excess of the match time. Footage showed some of the Argentine players dodging debris thrown by fans, with bottles and cups spilling out all over the ground.
At this point, Swedish referee Glenn Nyberg led both players off the field, and the stadium's big screen displayed the caption, "Your match has been suspended, please proceed to the nearest exit." This made everyone think that the match was over, as the score page also showed that the full match was over. However, the official website of the Olympic Games said that the match was "suspended". In fact, Paolo Valeri, the VAR referee from Italy, was conducting a routine check on the goal.
The match had already been interrupted for an hour and a half by the time the news of the disallowed goal came through. As Medina's goal had previously sparked a riot amongst the fans, the tournament organizers felt that an immediate disallowance could cause further problems. As a result, the organizers decided to wait until the stadium had been cleared before annulling the goal and restarting the match, even if the decision appeared to be somewhat confusing.
When play resumed, the referee also went through the unnecessary ritualistic procedure of going to the sideline monitors to confirm that the goal had been disallowed. In the end, the match resumed three minutes later and Argentina were unable to equalize again, going down 1-2 to Morocco.
The chaos and controversy of the tournament not only triggered extensive discussion among fans and the media, but also posed a serious challenge to the organization and management of the tournament. Argentina will face Iraq in the next round, while Morocco will take on Ukraine.
