Sports editor Pedro Escartín, commenting on the game between Mexico and Paraguay, said: “When the football field is converted into a madhouse of violence, of antifootball, of carrying out the objectionable guideline that ‘the ball passes but not the man,’ then to think that one man alone, without the collaboration of players and managers, could convert the atmosphere of violence into a show of sportsmanship and good manners, is asking too much.” He added: “In a game where 77 fouls are committed, I ask myself if football can be positive.” Fortunately, not all the games were as violent as that one.

In another commentary, the same daily cited the pope’s words: “Sport is not enough . . . It frequently turns into excessive competitiveness, rivalry, aggressiveness, brutality, disloyalty, industrialization, and commercialization.” This spirit is communicated to the crowd in whose faces “can be read the aggressiveness, the anguish, the anger, the fury, the sadness, and often a delirious and hysterical joy.” These factors, together with blind nationalism, have often led to violence and bloodbaths. And soccer violence is no rare occurrence.