Argentina's media blasted the Argentine Football Association's decision this week to cancel the national team's friendly match with Israel that had been scheduled in Jerusalem this Saturday, following threats to star player Lionel Messi.
The cancellation was dubbed a "disgrace" in Clarin, Argentina's most widely read daily newspaper, on Wednesday.
"For 3,000 years, there has been conflict in the Middle East, and ostensibly only now you discover that there is no security to play there?" the newspaper said.
"Messi lives in Barcelona, where there have already been incidents of Islamic terrorism, but there is no issue in playing there? What about the players who live in England, London or Paris? Who decided that Jerusalem is more dangerous than other places?"
The paper recounted the murders of 11 Israeli athletes in the 1972 Munich Olympics, the 1992 and 1994 Iran-sponsored attacks against the Jewish community in Buenos Aires, and the recent burning of Argentine jerseys and flags by Palestinian demonstrators.
"It is natural to feel fear from threats, but to capitulate to them? That's a different thing," it said.
La Nacion, another widely read paper, reported that Argentine President Mauricio Macri was kept abreast of the developments surrounding the match. His associates said he had considered whether he should support "those who will play with our national team's jersey, or will I have to arrange matters so as to not offend or anger my friends in Israel?"
Macri reportedly maintains close ties with at least two of the AFA's presidents, and served for two decades as the president of the Boca Junior soccer team in Buenos Aires.
Reports in Argentina said the AFA had received an advance of $1.5 million for the game. In compensation for the cancellation, Argentina has offered the Israelis two games after the World Cup, one in Israel if the situation "calms down," and one in Argentina.
Sports paper Ole interviewed two Argentinians who play on Israeli teams. Matias Martin (Hapoel Afula) told the paper, "I have been here for four years, and it is safer here than many places in Argentina."
Nicolas Falczuk (Hapoel Iksal) said, "Actually, this doesn't surprise me. People who don't live here are afraid because they don't understand the situation. My friends and relatives in Argentina always ask me if it is true that there are problems in Israel, and I always answer, 'There is no problem here.'"
