Just before the World Cup: Argentinian team only takes questions in Spanish

Apparently just before the World Cup began some Korean journalists were not happy with the fact that the Argentinian team only took questions in Spanish.

Three things were strange about the press conference for the Argentinian national team.

If you weren't from the press of a Spanish-speaking country all you could do was stare ahead for the twenty minutes it lasted, as English wasn't spoken there and if you didn't know Spanish you were treated like a criminal.

(next paragraph is about how players couldn't be seen at the practice grounds, skipping that)

At the press conference area one could meet the main players, but because there was no English interpretation the press members that couldn't speak Spanish effectively became deaf mutes. Only at the very end were a pair of English questions allowed.

However, one couldn't look forward to hearing answers in English from the players. This 'case of missing English' continued after the game in the mixed zone. Messi and Teves, when asked to give a response in English, just kept on talking on Spanish right to the end of the interview. The foreign correspondents who wanted to hear a few important words from the players had no choice but to leave without anything of substance.

The third "strange thing" mentioned in the article was about cell phones not being turned off, so not translating that either.

The hard lesson learned: English isn't the world's second language. The quicker people begin to realize this the better, and the better it will be for the prospects of an IAL to bridge the gap as well.