Post-World Cup insults fly between Spaniards and Argentinans: ‘It’s idolatry,’ priest says

In response to the insults exchanged on social media between Argentinian and Spanish fans following the 2026 FIFA World Cup final, a priest questioned the amount of rage, warning that those behaving this way have “lost their bearings" and that "the way they’re acting isn’t about soccer; it’s idolatry."

In a thread posted on X , Father Francisco Javier Bronchalo, a Spanish priest from the Diocese of Getafe, lamented having read “too many insults on social media between Argentinians and Spaniards” in recent days.

“Someone posts something with the best of intentions, and people come down on them as if they had hit their mother,” he noted.

The Spanish national team defeated Argentina 1-0 on Sunday, July 19, with a goal by Ferrán Torres and became world champion for the second time, following the title won in 2010.

In his reflection, Bronchalo noted that “the human heart is made to worship” and warned that if it “does not worship God, it will worship something else: success, the body, money, or a soccer team.”

This idolatry, he continued, replaces “liturgical chant with the team anthem, the worshipping assembly with the cheering section, and salvation with winning a title,”…