Despite the crisis, Argentines throw the “house out the window” for the end of the Qatar 2022 World Cup

Where does so much Argentine come from? Many wonder in Qatar. Thousands of compatriots from Messi and company colonize the opulent and distant Dohaat the same time, borders inside, in Argentina the delirium for his selection keeps a country in constant crisis in a continuous party, which drags years of high poverty, inflation and devaluation of its currency.

The victory of the Albiceleste against Croatia and their pass to the final on Sunday brought seas of fans to the streets on Tuesday until dawn as if it were the final itself: a fanaticism that has been growing without limits for weeks, with televisions day and night with stories of the ‘Scaloneta’ and even schools paralyzed so that teachers and students can watch the Argentine matches together.

“Argentine fanaticism is very, very big. I don’t see a European make their children miss a day of school to go see a World Cup… However, in Argentina the grandmother, grandfather, mother, father, grandchildren and in some cases even have traveled They have taken the dog, but they have gone to the field to see the Argentine team “tells EFE the economic and business analyst Salvador Di Stefano.

According to data from the travel company Despegar, searches for flights from Argentina to Qatar increased by 399% after the victory against the Croats compared to the day before, surpassing the record registered after the match against the Netherlands.

Aerolíneas Argentinas also attests to this debauchery: within half an hour of finishing the semifinal it had sold all the tickets for the flight scheduled for next Friday, which led it to offer another for the same day.

‘Qatar dollar’

Whoever decides to throw the house out the window and try to travel from Buenos Aires to Doha for the final, must pay for a round-trip ticket, with several stops, leaving this Thursday and returning on December 22 or 23, between US$ 1,339 and US$1,670, according to Despegar.

A piece of information: in Argentina, almost everyone receives their salary in local currency, and buying dollars to save is almost impossible unless you go to the black market, where they cost almost twice as much as the inaccessible official price. Yes, a credit card can be used to spend pesos on purchases in dollars, as long as it is paid in a single installment and at a high tax-laden exchange rate.

Taking this into account, an Argentine should have between 480,000 and 600,000 pesos, just to travel -lodging and expenses aside-, according to the price known as the ‘Qatar dollar’, established by the Government for any expense in foreign currency that exceeds US$300 per month.

Currently, the minimum wage is around 57,900 pesos (US$181 in the illegal market), and in the second quarter unemployment affected 6.9% of the active population, in a society with a large part of the population surviving on state subsidies and / or irregular jobs.

“First let Argentina win”

Asked how it is possible that Argentina is one of the countries that contributes the most travelers to the World Cup, Di Stefano affirms: “It is that we are very fun, very soccer fans and we have a black economy that probably allows many people to travel that way. In Argentina soccer is almost a religion and we all look at it as such; we are obsessed with it”.

“We are 47 million Argentines and the ABC1 segment (upper class) is 5%, which would indicate that approximately 2.3 million have high economic capacity and, given the concentration of wealth that our country has, they have no problem in traveling abroad to see any type of game”Add.

“It is more likely that in Argentina there are people with dollars under their mattress than people who have borrowed to travel, because credit is scarce and very expensive”he underlines, sure that there are people who save four years to go see the national team.

In the first half of 2022, 10.6 million Argentines, 36.5% of the urban population, were poor, in a context of inflation that, beyond the situation left by the war in Ukraine, almost no country knows: In October, buying something in Argentina was, on average, 88% more expensive than in the same month of 2021.

An oppressive situation -in most sectors, wage increases are below inflation- that a month ago the Minister of Labor proposed to leave on ‘stand by’ during the World Cup: “Then we continue working with inflation, but first let Argentina win”launched Raquel ‘Kelly’ Olmos.

(With information from EFE)