Argentine Football Association

Um, a number of the German players Uh, got ill after the final, which he also said was a downside of these injections.

Now, the German FA actually didn't, or the West German FA didn't actually deny that they'd been taking injections, but claimed that they were vitamin C and that they were legal, and Puskás' allegation was so terrible that no German team, national or club, would ever play against Puskás again.

So in the weeks leading up to this final, the big controversy had been that Frankfurt aren't allowed to play against Puskás.

Um, so there's a, a kind of standoff whether Real Madrid are gonna drop Puskás to play the game or whether Frankfurt will, will soften and the West German FA will soften on this.

In the end, the resolution is that Puskás puts out a statement, uh, retracting his allegations and apologizing for the offense caused.

And once he does that, they agree for this game to go ahead.

So the whole league went on strike.

During that period, Di Stéfano didn't want to not play, so he went to Colombia and played for Millonarios in Colombia.

Yeah.

Well, they, there is tons of videos of, uh, the head of FIFA b- you know, celebrating with, um, the president of Argentina and hanging out with the president of Argentina and, and the president of the AFA, the, uh, association, or Argentinian Football Association.

Like, they're all in cahoots.

They're all friends.

It was a little bit silly at times.

Um, but it can't be any other way 'cause this is the AFA staging a big event, and it's Messi and everything that comes along with him.

It's, it-

So it has to be a bit silly-

it is some of the press...

Sorry, Andreas, just one thing.

It's weird how AFA have been covered in this game because, uh, some of the, like, press I've seen is like, wow, like, uh, at least for once Argentine's Football Association, like, from more from, like, a Western press, but, like, Argentine Football Association's actually, like, organized an event and it's been pretty trouble-free.

That's what I've heard and read today.

But it's his dad.

So what his dad did was – recorded a v8 do you remember them vhs tape video thing yeah he recorded one of them and he sent it off to the argentine fa saying you know this kid here have a look at him and i saw i saw an interview with the it was the assistant coach at the time claudio vivas and he said that he watched this video Like, you know, with his mouth, what on earth is this? And he took it to the head coach, the senior coach, who at that time was still Marcelo Bielsa.

This is early in 2004.

Bielsa stands down after they win the Olympics in kind of July, August of 2004.

I had the chance only once to interview him.

This was back in 2005 at that tournament.

And the Argentine FA offered me an interview.

And they said, yeah, we'll be training at such and such a place.

Um, but yeah, a huge, huge send-off.

I mean, it was an incredible occasion, and incredibly, to use that word again, the Argentina FA seemed to get all the organization spot on.

Yeah.

Which I think-

It, that, that front four is locked in.

How do you feel about the depth behind it, though? 'Cause obviously with Kane there's a lot of conversation about that i- in the, in the corridors of power at the FA.

And with Tuchel himself, do you go for Jude Bellingham as a false nine or whatever, et cetera and so on.

Behind Bellingham you've got, I think, a bit of strength and depth there.

So if England were to beat Spain 2-1, that wouldn't be enough because you go on points against, um, each other first on the head-to-head, or if it's 3-3, then it goes to, uh, to goal difference.

Uh, sorry, to, to almost like an aggregate score, I, I, I suppose.

Now, England did manage this in their first ever UEFA Nations League campaign, of course.

Spain weren't world champions or even European champions at the time, so it's a, it's a tall order for England to go to Spain and win, uh, 4-3 or, or 3-2 would do it, and then it goes to goal difference.