Messi’s hometown turns blue & white

Argentina forward Angel Di Maria received a threat at his family home on the outskirts of Rosario early Monday morning, local media reported, amid a wave of drug-related violence in the city where Lionel Messi also hails from.

The message comes a week after Di Maria, currently playing for Portuguese champions Benfica, said he would like to end his career at his boyhood club Rosario Central.

Local media reports said a car left a sign in front of the private neighborhood where the 36-year-old usually stays addressed to the Di Maria family saying not even the provincial governor Maximiliano Pullaro could guarantee their safety if he returns to the city.

"Tell your son Angel not to come back to Rosario because we will kill a family member. Not even Pullaro is going to save you. We don't leave paper notes. We leave bullets and dead people behind," read the message, according to the news portal Infobae, citing police sources.

Rosario, site of one of the world's largest agro-port hubs, has seen an intense increase in violence by drug trafficking groups, as the city is - according to experts - a potential outlet for illegal drugs to other countries.

Argentine captain and Rosario-born Lionel Messi was also threatened in a letter last year after unidentified gunmen attacked a supermarket owned by his wife Antonela Roccuzzo's family.

The Argentine government said last week it will send a bill to Congress to allow the armed forces to intervene in internal security operations to fight drug trafficking and crime in Rosario.

The Argentine FA, lacking proper leadership since 2015 and fearful its national team might not reach the World Cup finals without banned captain Lionel Messi, elected a third-tier club chairman and former roadsweeper as its president on Wednesday.

Claudio Tapia of Barracas Central, who play in the Primera B Metropolitana division, was the sole candidate in the election but still needed the support of a majority of delegates, which he achieved by scooping 40 of 43 votes cast.

He will serve a four-year term, but some of the power behind the scenes is expected to be wielded by his deputy Daniel Angelici, who is president of top flight Boca Juniors and was a key figure in promoting Tapia's candidacy.

Tapia, who is also known as “Chiqui” (little one), said one of his first tasks would be to get Messi's four-match suspension reduced and said it was imperative everyone got behind beleaguered coach Edgardo Bauza.

Messi was suspended on Tuesday after FIFA said he had "directed insulting words at an assistant referee" during their 1-0 World Cup qualifying win over Chile on Thursday.

The match officials did not include the incident in their reports but FIFA acted on video evidence and Messi missed Tuesday's 2-0 defeat to Bolivia in La Paz.

"(We) will make the necessary efforts before FIFA for the sanction to be ... reduced because it is unjust," Tapia said.

Messi will miss games away to Uruguay and at home to Peru and Venezuela, before returning for their final match in Ecuador in October.

Tapia said it was crucial to give Bauza backing if he was to help Argentina rise from fifth place in the South American qualifying campaign.

Only the top four teams qualify automatically for Russia in 2018 while the fifth-placed team must go into an intercontinental playoff against a side from the Oceania zone.

"We must back him ... as well as all the players," he told a news conference.

"We must meet with him to sit down and see what's best (for the team). We must find the way to recover our confidence so our beloved Argentine national team represents us in Russia and does its best possible."

The AFA has been under the administration of a FIFA-appointed Regularising Committee, headed by Argentine Armando Perez, since last June after a presidential election in 2015 ended in a 38-38 tie between two candidates when only 75 delegates had a vote.

Tapia is the first man to win the AFA presidency in an election since Julio Grondona in 1979. Grondona ran the AFA as his personal fiefdom for 35 years until his death in 2014.

The 49-year-old Tapia, who came to Buenos Aires from San Juan province with his family when he was a boy, spent nine years working for the capital's refuse collection company while playing for Barracas and became a trade union leader and president of his club aged 35.

The unthinkable prospect of a World Cup without Argentina or Lionel Messi could move a step closer to becoming reality on Thursday as the South American giants prepare to face arch-rivals Chile in a crucial battle on the road to Russia 2018.

Argentina, who last failed to qualify for the World Cup in 1970, saw their progress towards next year's finals go awry in 2016 when back-to-back draws with Venezuela and Peru were followed by defeats against Paraguay and Brazil.

Although they bounced back to beat Colombia 3-0 in a home qualifier last November, they remain outside the automatic qualifying places in fifth place, with 19 points from 12 games.

A defeat against fourth-placed Chile on Thursday in Buenos Aires would leave Argentina further adrift of the automatic qualifying spots.

And if Colombia beat lowly Bolivia in their home game, as expected, Argentina could even finish the day further down the pecking order, outside of the fifth-place playoff berth they currently occupy.

With a trip to face Bolivia in the thin air of La Paz awaiting them next Tuesday -- where Argentina have rarely performed well -- it means the two-time World Cup-winners can ill afford to slip up against the Chileans.

Argentina defeated Chile in Santiago earlier in the qualifiers, winning 2-1 in March last year.

However since then Chile inflicted another soul-destroying defeat on the Argentines in a major final, winning the Copa America Centenario final on penalties last June, a year after an identical outcome in the 2015 tournament.

The Copa America Centenario defeat prompted the departure of Gerardo "Tata" Martino as Argentina coach in July, triggering the slump in form which has left their World Cup qualifying campaign in the balance.

The only consolation for new Argentina coach Edgardo Bauza is that opponents Chile are grappling with their own set of problems, notably the suspension of Arturo Vidal and a fitness concern surrounding Arsenal star Alexis Sanchez.

Sanchez trained with the team in Santiago this week despite suffering an ankle injury while on Arsenal duty last weekend.

Brazil on cusp

Thursday's other showpiece game in South America sees Brazil take on Uruguay in Montevideo.

Brazil have transformed their qualifying campaign with six straight victories since new coach Tite took over last year following the Copa America Centenario debacle, where the five-time World Cup winners were eliminated in the group stage.

The Brazilians are now motoring towards qualification for Russia, four points clear at the top of the standings from second-placed Uruguay.

A seventh straight victory on Thursday will all but guarantee Brazil's place at the finals in Russia.

Tite's biggest headache will be attempting to find an adequate back-up to Manchester City starlet Gabriel Jesus, who is injured. Jesus proved to be the catalyst for Brazil's resurgence last year, scoring five goals in six games.

Though there is no obvious like-for-like replacement, Tite still has plenty of attacking options with a strike force led by Neymar.

Liverpool duo Roberto Firmino and Philippe Coutinho could also provide attacking thrust.

Uruguay coach Oscar Tabarez admitted he would have his hands full dealing with Neymar.

Asked how he planned to shackle the Brazil star, Tabarez replied: "If I had a formula I certainly wouldn't share it."

Uruguay also have a problem in attack with Barcelona star Luis Suarez suspended.

That is likely to mean that Edinson Cavani will shoulder the goalscoring threat for Uruguay with support from Diego Rolan.

Elsewhere Thursday, Ecuador will attempt to maintain their place in the automatic qualifying spots as they travel to Asuncion to face Paraguay.

Bottom team Venezuela host Peru.

Inmates in an Argentine prison have begun a hunger strike to press authorities to repair the cable TV system so they can watch the World Cup.

"Cable television is an indispensable right for everyone deprived of their liberty," according to a statement from nine inmates at Puerto Madryn jail some 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) south of Buenos Aires.

"It hasn't been working for three days. And we have decided not to receive any food until the problem is resolved," the prisoners wrote.

The nine inmates also filed a legal suit to assert their rights. The cable system, located in a common area of the jail, was damaged recently and not repaired.

Argentina face Iceland on Saturday in Moscow in their first match of the World Cup.

The tournament kicks off when hosts Russia play Saudi Arabia on Thursday.

One person died Thursday when violent unrest near a Buenos Aires soccer match between Boca Juniors and Gimnasia y Esgrima spilled into the stadium and onto the pitch, authorities said.

Police fired rubber bullets and tear gas outside the Carmelo Zerillo stadium in La Plata, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) south of Argentina's capital as they attempted to stop fans from pushing into the already crowded venue.

The unrest continued inside, where shocked spectators were seen squeezing through fencing to escape the violence and get onto the field.

"I can confirm that there is one person dead. This person died of cardiac arrest," said Sergio Berni, security minister of Buenos Aires province, where the Argentina league first division match took place.

The game was suspended after nine minutes until further notice "due to lack of (security) guarantees," referee Hernan Mastrangelo said, minutes after the players and technical staff left the pitch for the dressing rooms.

"It affected all of us on the field," he added. "The air became unbreathable. The situation got out of control and there were no security guarantees."

Authorities at San Martin hospital in La Plata confirmed the death of a 57-year-old man due to cardiac arrest as he was being transferred from the stadium to the hospital.

Several fans, including children being led or carried by adults, rushed to get out of the stands and onto the pitch, where people were seen sitting or lying down apparently recovering from tear gas exposure.

The match came at a critical point in the Argentine top-flight league, with four rounds to go and Gimnasia playing its last chance to secure the title at home, while Boca was looking for a win to return to the premier division.

"What was going to be a party ends in this. It hurts us all what happened, it is tremendous and we regret it," Boca Juniors manager Hugo Ibarra told reporters.

The deadly violence came five days after a stampede in Indonesia prompted by police firing tear gas inside a packed stadium left at least 131 people dead, including 32 children.