World Cup 2010 Preview: Argentina's Strange Problems

First it was Maradona, who said that he would walk naked around the obelisk in Buenos Aires (picture) if Argentina wins the World Cup.

Then Luciana Salazar said she would accompany the Argentina coach.

Hours after that, General Manager Bilardo said that if Argentina indeed wins, whoever scores in the final could have anal sex with him.

At least some players took it as a joke. Tevez said "I'll score, but that's it", Veron could not "promise anything," and Mascherano was doubtful, asking, "It was a joke, right?"

And that was just the beginning. Up to 10 Barra Bravas (Argentinian hooligans) have already been thrown out of South Africa. A NGO against violence has asked for Maradona and Bilardo to be researched to see if they bought the tickets for the Barra Bravas.

The A sociación de  Familiares de Víctimas de violencia  (Violence Victims Family Association) even asked for AFA's president, Julio Grondona, to be researched to see if he had something to do with this incident.

The Maldita Violencia en el Fútbol  (Damn Violence in Football) organization went to the Argentinian Parliament, because theoretically a total of 235 Barra Bravas  were going to go to South Africa. This operation would have cost a total of 2.2 million euros.

The Argentinian press is wondering how they came up with the money for the trip and hotels, and more importantly how in the world some of those guys flew on the same plane as the Argentinian National team.

The fans said that they had an agreement with Maradona and Bilardo, but those two say that they didn't know anything. The problem is that the hooligans couldn't have been in the plane without the AFA knowing about it.

In the middle of all this, the national team is training for its match against Nigeria this Saturday. The players want to be a united bunch, have fun playing, and do all they can to win.

They seem to be the ones with most common sense.

PD: All translations have been done by me and are not literal in most cases.