Argentine football chiefs back the AFA: “We’re all behind this leadership” | OneFootball

The celebration of the Alumni Awards at the Lionel Andrés Messi Complex brought together various sports leaders. Representatives from First Division clubs, the lower leagues, and federal football united behind the association. Details.

This Wednesday night saw a new edition of the Alumni Awards at the Lionel Andrés Messi Complex in Ezeiza. The home of the national team served as the venue for the presentation of the prestigious awards to journalists, officials, athletes, and coaches from the different branches of football, futsal, and beach soccer.

Before the first award was handed out, the officials present in the hall, coming from both the First Division and the various lower leagues and federal football, lined up behind Marcelo Achile. The president of Defensores de Belgrano and current board member of the AFA took the microphone and delivered a speech in defense of the Argentine Football Association.

“The AFA and our beloved clubs are suffering a very complicated onslaught from the media. This is a timely moment to show ourselves united. To show solidarity, camaraderie, and why we support the association. When we started, the AFA was under a complex intervention, and the clubs were deeply in debt. The worst moment was during the intervention; the clubs were on the brink of bankruptcy and disaster. There was a unity that was reflected among all the clubs from the Interior and the AMBA and was embodied in a leader, ‘Chiqui’ (Claudio) Tapia,” Achile commented.

The official emphasized that they are all “behind this leadership” and described as “immeasurable what is being said in the media.” “Let them say what they want because they don’t understand the regulations or the passion. They don’t understand what our National Team means. There is a political background where they are after something else, they are after the clubs, to do business. Corporations have as their main objective to make money. We, as Non-Profit Civil Associations, pursue the common good. Day by day we put our soul into the club to move forward,” he stated.

“In order not to lose our history and our idiosyncrasy, we needed this expression. No matter which government comes. We are here supporting (Pablo) Toviggino, Tapia, and all of us, who will stand up for the Argentine Football Association.”

True to his style, Javier Milei took advantage of the Estudiantes corridor to take a shot at the AFA and its leadership. In recent hours, the president used his personal account to share a post made by Federico Sturzenegger, Minister of Deregulation and State Transformation.

The Minister produced a supposed “report” in which he points to Tapia and the refereeing decisions in favor of Barracas Central: “DEVASTATING RESULT,” wrote the State official, accompanying the headline with “the work in question shows with hard statistics the irregularity in refereeing that many whisper about and no one denounces.”

Far from getting involved in his own work matters, Sturzenegger was concerned with spreading a document that would “demonstrate” that Barracas Central “receives 8% more favorable decisions and 28% fewer unfavorable decisions,” posted the Minister, including a “link” to the statistics.

The Minister’s post attacking the AFA leadership would not be a coincidence—Is it ‘revenge’? It’s worth noting that at the end of October, his father, Adolfo, made a ridiculous comparison between the economy and the Monumental stadium.

That absurd “slum” comparison about River’s stadium reached the AFA, which, through its Treasurer, Pablo Toviggino, responded with a spicy post in which he also called for the renewal of Peronism.

“The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. What a lovely idiot this guy is. Exactly like his son. Deregulation?? You and your son, your heads, your brains are deregulated!!!” wrote the official from the governing body.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.