Soccer-'Out of hand': Paraguay coach Alfaro vents at World Cup's business elite

Paraguay's coach Gustavo Alfaro criticized the commercialization of football, accusing elites of prioritizing profits over fans and the sport's roots in poverty, ahead of the World Cup.

Paraguay's outspoken coach Gustavo Alfaro took aim at football's business elites on Sunday, accusing them of commercial intrusion on the World Cup ‌and sidelining fans with exorbitant ticket costs in a sport that has its roots in poverty.

In unscheduled remarks to media during a training session, Alfaro promised his team would do everything to reach the next round and hoped more fans from Paraguay could travel to ‌support them, alongside a diaspora who had turned out so far. "People I know are having a very hard time, because ‌travelling these days is very difficult, very expensive, the World Cups are blown out of proportion, the costs, everything else, and that's why sometimes you understand the sacrifice people make to pay for a ticket," he said.

"The essence of football is lost. And football can't be a business, it has to be ⁠football... a ​very select group get to enjoy ⁠it," he said. "Football, we all own it, primarily the poorest, because the cheapest toy to play with was a ball, which was sometimes hard to afford, ⁠but 22 people could play with just one toy. So the power of football is immense. And that's what we must defend," Alfaro added.

'BORN ​FROM ADVERSITY' The Argentine coach said the business side of football was becoming intrusive, disrupting the flow of games with ⁠hydration breaks that enabled more advertising.

"It's a commercial break, not a hydration break," he said. "The game is getting out of hand." Paraguay face Australia on Thursday in ⁠a ​decisive Group D match in the San Francisco Bay Area after the surprise turnaround of their campaign in a gritty 1-0 win over Turkey, which followed a 4-1 thumping by the United States. Alfaro said his team was from humble roots, "born from ⁠adversity" and would prove against Australia prove they were worthy of their place at the World Cup and deliver what he ⁠said would be a message to ⁠the kids in the street. "Being less for us means being more. We may eventually be less than all the teams playing here in the World Cup, but we don't feel less, we ‌feel that if we're ‌all together, we can somehow be more," he said.