2023-11-12 04:45:57
Football says no to Javier Milei. In a choral manner and like a wave in the popular of a large stadium, in the last 48 hours from the smallest clubs of the Ascenso to the great teams of the Professional League they were adding their voices, one following another planting their flag, in a reaction defensive and offensive at the same time, facing the November 19 runoff. They raised their voices in forceful statements once morest the intention to privatize the management expressed by the presidential candidate.
Already at the crest of the wave, at noon on Saturday, River’s statement came out. The millionaire club was the last of the greats to join what was happening with the other institutions: Boca, Racing, San Lorenzo, Huracán, Banfield, Lanús, Argentinos Juniors, Newell’s, Platense, among many others. Even Independiente, the club chaired by Néstor Grindetti, former candidate for governor of Buenos Aires for Together for Change, stated: “Our Club has to remain a Non-Profit Civil Association. As our statute indicates, we will never give up this figure. The club belongs to the members.”
“It is a time when you cannot be neutral, and evidently this sector of society is aware that Milei with his chainsaw seeks to destroy the history of Argentine sports that has been built from the clubs in the hands of their members” evaluates Claudio Morresi. The legislator of the City of Buenos Aires and former Secretary of Sports of the Nation spoke out two days ago precisely warning of the threat that he would weigh on “amateur sports if Milei wins.”
“You have to have a definition if you want the popular majority to continue having access to sport in the country,” says Morresi regarding the competing models in the next runoff. “It is time for renowned athletes to come out and say what needs to be said. regarding these two national projects,” he says. And he celebrates this wave of civic commitment that the clubs express: “Football is a great sounding board for what happens in society and in that sense what is happening is very important and valuable. happening”.
The upward climb was fully and en masse once morest the privatization of the sport that arouses the most passion in Argentina. By stating their positions in this great wave of rejections, the club leaders made it clear that they will not leave the status of non-profit civil association – as expressed in their statutes – to become the fateful “SAD”: the famous Societies. Anonymous Sports that, just as Mauricio Macri tried, Javier Milei now intends.
The wave of rejections
The wave began to move following a viral video in which the libertarian spoke out in favor of the privatization of Argentine soccer clubs and opened the doors to the SAD. The libertarian proposal actually follows a manifest wish of Mauricio Macri who since 1999 has tried, as president of Xeneize at that time, to pressure the AFA to admit privatization. Macri then sought to include the entry of public limited companies into the management of the clubs in the AFA Executive Committee meetings.
The anecdote is remembered for which “Julio Grondona finally included the proposal” in a vote. Of course, it was when “Don Julio” had already guaranteed “that no other leader would follow Macri’s initiative,” they remember in the AFA. The election came out 31 to 1: a total victory. And Grondona’s comment remains to be remembered: “We lost, Mauricio.”
It was Pablo Toviggino, treasurer of AFA and president of the Santiagueña Football League, who first raised his voice, very specifically: “It is time to publicly show support for Sergio Massa. No to the privatization of football,” published the very close leader to Chiqui Tapia.
Cristian Malaspina, president of Argentinos Juniors, soon joined in: “No to the SAD, just remember the presence that our clubs had helping society in the pandemic.” And Colón’s statement: “Clón Atlético Colón says NO to Sports Limited Companies. The club belongs to the members.” At the close of this edition, communications continued to be added, such as those from Peñarol and Quilmes, Mar del Plata representatives in the National Basketball League and classic rivals in the city.
The reaction stems from a combination of civic awareness and self-defense sparked by the casual proposal to transform the status under which sports management is governed: Non-profit associations. And they raise the slogan: “NO to SAD.” They are thus facing the November 19 runoff.
The reaction was in crescendo since the Promotion to the Professional League. And some specifically called to vote for Sergio Massa, such as Central Córdoba, or Tristán Suárez’s club, to stop the initiative that the libertarian candidate had proposed already in mid-2022.
Massa’s proposals for football
Against the privatization threat, the actions of Sergio Massa, former leader of Tigre, were revalued, who maintained that an eventual government of his would promote “the return of visitors.” The long-awaited return to a vibrant football postcard, which expresses the liveliness of the fans, once once more excited the fans. In the First Division, this has been obsolete since 2013. In the Ascenso, since 2007.
But there are other measures that generate expectations for the assumption of Massa as President in relation to football, because they are precisely accomplished facts, such as the implementation of Decree 1212/03 that will take effect in a few days, explains the legislator.
“This was a request from the leadership that Massa carried out and guarantees the clubs a special regime of tax exemptions,” Morresi details to Página/12. This regime was in force twenty years ago and was modified by Mauricio Macri when he sought to take resources from the clubs to cover the gaps in his administration’s fiscal accounts. The new regulations will imply relief for non-profit societies, contributing to the salaries of players, medical staff and auxiliary staff of the teams, in the First Division as well as any other AFA category.
On Friday, when this massive wave began to resonate, journalist Ernesto Cherquis Bialo, spokesperson for the AFA during Grondona’s time, spoke out with a direct statement: “Support Massa, do not come at me with pusillanimous lukewarmness.” And he defined: “Don’t tell me on Monday that we congratulate President Sergio Massa. Support him now because he is a football president, he is a football kidney man, he is a guy who knows everything.”
What the clubs say
From the clubs, both from the First Division and from the Ascenso, the statements were forceful “the total rejection of public limited companies in Argentine football” proposed by La Libertad Avanza. And some even made explicit their support for Sergio Massa, the candidate of Unión por la Patria.
River Plate expressed that “following the spirit of our founders, we reject public limited companies in Argentine football.” And added: “River Plate is a non-profit Civil Association, and it will always be its members who are the support of these 122 years of Greatness.”
Independiente maintained: “Our Club has to continue being a Non-Profit Civil Association. As our statute indicates, we will never give up this figure. The club belongs to the members,” reported Grindetti’s Rojo.
From Boca they emphasized: “Faithful to its origins, respectful of the clear principles defended for almost 120 years, Boca Juniors ratifies its character as a non-profit civil association and the premise that our club belongs to its people, members.” And they added: “The life of Boca Juniors is linked to the place where it was born, grew up and took on the dimension that today has made it a popular movement recognized in the world. It will always be committed to the social reality where it develops its sporting and cultural activities.”
For Racing, the position is also non-negotiable: “No one has to explain to us what SADs mean in a football club. Our members and fans, who recovered democracy for Racing, know it well. For past, present and future, Racing Club ratifies its status as a non-profit civil association. The club belongs to the members!”, the statement said on its social networks.
Huracán maintained: “Club Atlético Huracán cannot be transformed into a for-profit company or a sports corporation. The club was, is and will be of the members. By conviction and by Statute, we say NO to SAD.” Lanús ratified its position according to its 1999 Annual Ordinary Assembly where it “definitively closed the door to sports corporations, being the first Argentine soccer entity to speak out openly and officially once morest the SAD,” the entity said in a statement. .
San Lorenzo also maintained: “The civil association cannot be converted into a public limited company or any other type of corporate framework that implies the interference of private capital in the administration and government of the club. As long as there are one hundred members with the right to vote, willing to support it “The club belongs to the members. NOT to the SAD.”
Banfield, Barracas Central, Newell’s Old Boys, Rosario Central, Platense, Colón, Unión, Ferro, Almagro, Nueva Chicago, Quilmes and Almirante Brown expressed themselves in the same sense. And some like Central Córdoba and Tristán Suárez expressed their explicit support for Sergio Massa.
And while Central Córdoba, from Santiago del Estero, posted its statement along with the photo of a parade with the “Massa-Rossi” formula, from the Tristán Suárez Athletic Club they stated: “We have the obligation to openly support the candidacy of Sergio Massa. The clubs have an enormous responsibility in the support and development of the boys and girls of the neighborhoods.”
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