Unless you are living under a rock, you know that the World Cup officially kicks off tommorrow in German. What you might not know is that the Argentine team lost 7-3 to Ivory Coast and was eliminated from the 2006 world football championship. It’s obviously not the Copa Mundial but rather it is a soccer competition taking place in 32 prisons across the province of Buenos Aires in Argentina. The First Inter-prison World Football Championship began last week. According to COA News:

A total of 384 players went through the tough selection process, training and eliminatory matches. Each team adopted the flag of one of the 32 countries taking part in this year’s World Cup. But unlike professional football, the teams are made up of seven players, instead of 11. The games are divided into two 25-minute halves, and the system is simple elimination – which is why Argentina is already out, after the opening match.

This is happening inside a prison system that is being closely monitored by human rights organizations. Argentina’s prisons are overcrowded and the majority of prisoners haven’t even been convicted, as they are still awaiting trial. The number of violent deaths of prisoners and guards rose threefold between 2002 and 2005.

A 2004 report by the Committee Against Torture, of the Provincial Commission for Memory, an independent state body. The study, “System of Cruelty: Corruption and Torture in Prisons and Police Stations in the Province of Buenos Aires”, painted a dismal scene: cells lacking windows or other ventilation, toilets with no water, windows without glass and showers without hot water, even in the cold Argentine winter, shortages of food and medicines, and veritable torture chambers where prisoners are routinely mistreated.

So futbol is more than a sport, even more than a way of life. Inside an Argentina prison, soccer can be an escape from the harsh realities of incarceration.

Via / COA News