Why Football Fans Want Messi and Argentina Stripped of 2022 FIFA World Cup

• Angry fans are calling for FIFA to strip Argentina of the 2022 World Cup title
• Fans made the call after Papu Gomez was banned for doping
• Argentina won the World Cup for the first time in 36 years in Qatar

Outraged football fans have beckoned on FIFA to strip Argentina of their 2022 World Cup title after a member of the team was banned by the federation for doping.

Papu Gomez has been handed a two-year ban from professional football after the member of the Argentina World Cup winning squad was found guilty of failing an anti-doping test in October 2022.

According to Sportskeeda, fans took to social media app X (formerly Twitter) to express their outrage after the news of Gomes’ ban was made public, calling Argentina and Lionel Messi a cheat and saying they should have their World Cup title stripped.

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The 35-year-old left-winger failed an anti-doping test at Sevilla in October 2022, two months before the World Cup started. Despite this, he was still allowed to feature, securing a winner's medal in the process.

Gomez participated in Argentina’s opening game defeat to Saudi Arabia but was dropped for subsequent games after his poor showing against the Arab nation.

How fans reacted to Gomez's ban

Many football fans have been giving their opinion since the news of Papu Gomez's ban came to light as they have now called for Lionel Messi and the Argentina team to lose their World Cup winning medals.

“No one can convince me that the World Cup wasn’t rigged, so many evidences” AM7 tweeted.

Another fan tweeted:

"He was playing for Argentina during the World Cup qualifying matches, how ironic is that. Messi is such a cheater man. first Barca now Argentina. This guy can’t keep getting away with this."

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Muneed called for more investigations into the Argentina national team.

“This calls for a bigger investigation, not just into the Argentine squad but also into the Fifa regulations and processes.”

Messi led Argentina to their first World Cup triumph in 36 years, scoring a brace in the final as the South Americans defeated France via penalties in the final.

Messi celebrates World Cup win’

Earlier, Sports Brief reported Lionel Messi and Argentina are finding things too easy at the moment, and the captain stylishly expressed this on social media after another routine win over Peru.

The captain returned to the starting 11 for the first time since the 1-0 win over Ecuador, having missed the game against Bolivia and played off the bench against Paraguay.

Messi scored twice against Peru to help the world champions to a 2-0 win and maintain their perfect start to their 2026 World Cup qualifying campaign.