DOHA, Qatar — From a soccer-crazed country known for its world-class players and its repeated economic crises, Argentine fans are making great sacrifices to be in Qatar to see their team try to win the World Cup for the first time in 36 years.

Passionate and noisy, the euphoria in Doha has grown to the rhythm of “Muchachos” – the unofficial anthem of the fans – and with each victory of Lionel Messi and his team ahead of Sunday’s final against defending champion France.

In a corner of the Souq Waqif bazaar in the capital, locals and tourists gathered around a young woman clad in the Argentine sky blue-and-white stripped jersey juggling a ball with her feet. In a hand-written banner in English and Arabic, she asks for tickets to the World Cup final at Lusail Stadium. Passersby leave change on a hat placed on the ground.

“Soccer for me is everything,” said 24-year-old Belen Godoy, who has been in Doha for a month and attended nearly every Argentina game by buying resale tickets.

“I left my family. I spent all my savings,” she said. “I’ll return to Buenos Aires and I don’t know how I’m going to pay the rent … but no one can take away what I’ve lived.”

Nearby, Cristian Machinelli walked along one of the winding cobbled alleys of the labyrinthine bazaar draped in an Argentina flag decorated with images of Messi and late soccer great Diego Maradona kissing the World Cup trophy.

Maradona led the team to its last World Cup title, in 1986.

“I sold a Toyota truck for this,” the 34-year-old Machinelli said. “It’s what I’ve been spending here so far, and I have enough left to buy the ticket to the final. There’s no explanation, no reasoning, except that we Argentines are just crazy about soccer, and we’ll do any craziness to support (the team).”

There are no official numbers on how many Argentine fans have traveled to Qatar. Not all of them come from Argentina, however, with many living in Europe and the United States.

Although not always the majority in the stands, the fans’ encouragement during matches – chants accompanied by drums – seemed to help their team at crucial moments.

“When we lost against Saudi Arabia (in the first game), the people were behind us. We felt everyone’s support and that is matchless,” Argentina Coach Lionel Scaloni said. “We’re all rooting for for the same side. We all want the common good – we’re all fans of the sky blue and white.”

Argentine fan Julián Santander attended that first game against Saudi Arabia at Lusail Stadium wearing a team jersey. His friends said he had brought the team back luck.

“I went to see Spain against Costa Rica. I have the Spain shirt because of my Spanish family, and they ended up winning 7-0. A friend told me to leave it on for Argentina,” the 23-year-old Santander said.

Since then, he has been rooting for Messi and Co. while wearing Spain’s red national team shirt.

After the first loss, Santander’s father, Osvaldo, also changed his wardrobe for Argentina’s crucial match against Mexico. He wore a black replica of a shirt worn by one of the Argentina goalkeepers during the 2014 World Cup.

“I was in mourning,” the 57-year-old Osvaldo Santander said. “We sacrificed jobs, studies, life, so much for our passion and they were sending us back home. Things turned around and now we’re just three days from a moment that who knows how it will play out.”

Reaching the World Cup final brought much-needed relief to a country mired in a bruising economic crisis with one of the world’s highest inflation rates and growing poverty rates.

“The plane and match tickets are very expensive. We’ve made a lot of efforts to be here,” Argentine fan Viviana Rodríguez said. “Argentina is going through such a difficult time politically and economically. Everything is 10 times more expensive.”

The 53-year-old Rodríguez and her son, 20-year-old Lautaro Longhi, joined a demonstration in Doha to ask FIFA for fair ticket prices for the final because resale options are selling for several times face value.

“They’re asking for the equivalent of a brand new car for a ticket. It’s a fortune,” Longhi said, worried that he might miss out on watching Messi lift the trophy.

In essence, every Argentine fan in Qatar feels as important as the 11 players on the field.

“It would be a good way to give closure to a life, although I don’t want to be apocalyptic,” Osvaldo Santander said. “As a fan, I’ve done all that I had to do – I traveled, I left loved ones behind, I spent a ton of money, I fought for the tickets. That’s what we’re here for.”

FRANCE: Raphael Varane and Ibrahima Konaté were among five French players who missed training on Friday, two days before the World Cup final against Argentina.

The two center backs have reportedly become the latest members of the France squad to be affected by a virus, according to French media.

Three other players – Dayot Upamecano, Adrien Rabiot and Kingsley Coman – were struck by illness at the start of the week and had to isolate.

Upamecano and Rabiot were back in training Friday, but Coman was still missing. Theo Hernandez and Aurelien Tchouameni were also absent, French sports daily L’Equipe reported.

MORE TOURNAMENTS: A 32-team men’s Club World Cup in 2025. A new version of the tournament for women. National teams from different continents playing each other more often between World Cups.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino shared his wish list Friday to create and revamp games and events under the soccer body’s control – and provoked criticism in Europe from officials left sidelined by the tactical move.

A “FIFA World Series” was floated of four-team friendly tournaments in March before major championships in even-numbered years, plus combining the international breaks in September and October to a single block of four national team games.

Some of the ideas are not new, but the debate and announcement in Qatar two days before the World Cup final still caught soccer officials in Europe by surprise.

“We will now consult on all of these topics and then elaborate on all the details,” Infantino said at a news conference after the 37-member FIFA Council agreed on “strategic principles” for new competitions.

Members of the European Club Association and European Leagues groups said they were scrambling to learn the unexpected details of FIFA’s plans.

“These decisions have been made unilaterally without consulting, let alone agreeing, with those who are directly affected by them: The leagues, their member clubs, the players and fans,” the Zurich-based World Leagues Forum said.

A Club World Cup of 24 teams was due in 2021 in China but was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, though no tournament format had been agreed to nor commercial partners signed.

Infantino committed FIFA to a 32-team version in 2½ years, one week after failing to secure a working agreement in Doha with the influential ECA and one day after the proposed Super League project endured another setback in court in Luxembourg.

“The 32-team tournament will go ahead, making it really like a World Cup,” Infantino said about an event in June-July 2025 that would require some teams to play six or seven games.

The global players’ union FIFPRO, which also reached only a limited working deal with FIFA in Qatar this month, said the plans could “aggravate pressure on the welfare and employment of players.”

“Once again, decisions to scale competitions without implementing appropriate safeguards are short-sighted and pay no attention to players’ health and performance,” the Netherlands-based union said.

It is unclear how clubs would qualify for their global event – potentially worth tens of millions of dollars to each in prize money – or how many entries each continent would get, though Europe would likely have 12.

“The details, the location and so on still need to be discussed, agreed and decided,” Infantino said.

Former England and Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher, who is now a broadcaster on British television, called it a “ridiculous idea.”

“Players need rest at some point, they are getting treated like cattle,” Carragher wrote on Twitter. “FIFA hate the (Champions League) & want something similar themselves. European clubs should boycott it.”

A women’s Club World Cup is less controversial and has been a FIFA target since the 2019 World Cup in France. No new details were given Friday.

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