Argentina‘s friendly against Burkina Faso has taken an unexpected turn just hours before kickoff, with reports indicating the Albiceleste will actually face Burkina Faso’s U-23 side rather than its senior squad.
The development was confirmed by Burkina Faso insider Romain Molina, who had previously reported that several first-team players planned to skip the trip to Buenos Aires in protest.
He later revealed that only one member of Burkina Faso’s senior squad ultimately boarded the flight, with the rest opting to stay behind in Africa after yet another delay to their charter flight proved to be the final straw.
According to Molina, Burkina Faso’s federation called up its U-23 squad, whose match against Mali had been canceled, in order to avoid an outright no-show. “The flight from Casablanca had to depart late and will only arrive around 15:30 local time in Buenos Aires to play at 21:00. Shameful from start to finish,” Molina wrote on X.
The switch leaves Argentina facing an even greater mismatch than expected, with Burkina Faso missing key figures such as Edmond Tapsoba (Bayer Leverkusen), Arsène Kouassi (Lorient), Nasser Djiga (Wolverhampton) and Lassina Traoré (Shakhtar) for a friendly that was meant to showcase the senior national team.
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Logistics company breaks silence on the situation
Eurodata Sport, the company responsible for organizing Burkina Faso’s travel logistics, released a statement from its founder, Jairo Pachón, addressing the situation. The statement emphasized that the only real issue was the cancellation of the original flight due to a technical fault with the aircraft, clearing both federations of blame.
The company also confirmed Romain Molina’s earlier reporting that several senior players had refused to travel. “Representatives from the Burkina Faso Football Federation and the government held several meetings with these players to ask them to reconsider their position and honor the commitment made with the AFA. However, despite these efforts, the players who had expressed their refusal maintained their decision,” the statement read.
