A petition calling for Argentina to be expelled from the 2026 FIFA World Cup collected 23,316,108 signatures, falling just short of a Guinness World Record, according to Yahoo! Sports.
As reported by İdman.Biz, the petition missed the all-time record by just over one million signatures.
The current Guinness record belongs to the Jubilee 2000 campaign. In 1997, its petition calling for the cancellation of debt owed by the world's poorest countries was signed by 24,319,181 people.
The authors of the football petition accused FIFA and match officials of showing favoritism toward Lionel Messi and the Argentina national team during the tournament.
The appeal was signed by people from 170 countries in less than a week, highlighting the scale of the controversy surrounding the defending world champions' campaign.
Following the 2026 World Cup final, in which Spain defeated Argentina 1-0 after extra time to lift the trophy, the petition was officially closed.
