Daniel Vila on AFA pressure: "We club directors defend football" | OneFootball

The head of Independiente Rivadavia, Daniel Vila, spoke about what the strike of all AFA categories means against the encroachment that the AFA is suffering.

The president of Independiente Rivadavia, Daniel Vila, clarified the situation regarding the strike of all AFA categories that will take place between March 5 and 8. In an interview with the program Ovación 90, from Radio Nihuil, he defended the measure and said that the clubs are defending football.

The decision of the Executive Committee of the Professional League to suspend matchday 9 of the Professional League tournament received much support, as a way to defend the autonomy of the Argentine Football Association (AFA).

"I believe that there is misinformation on this topic and sometimes there is, from some sectors of the media, biased information, information that confuses, conditioned information that is not clarified. So it seemed to us, the football leaders, the presidents of the Professional League clubs, that we had to somehow shed light on this, and the way was to draw attention with a football strike to clarify, so that people know what it's about. There are no good guys here, there are no bad guys here, there are very important economic interests here. The television rights that a sector lost are at stake, a large business group from Argentina, and the World Cup television rights are also at stake. There's nothing more than that, the dispute over money, over financial interests," Vila explained.

"The ARCA complaint is a consequence, I would say minor, regarding the underlying issue. Let's think that this attack on the AFA, its president, and treasurer started about three months ago and it is daily, every day. The ARCA issue is recent, just a couple of days ago. But the underlying issue is that the television rights are being discussed, and that is what has generated a great campaign of aggression from a sector of the media against the president and treasurer of AFA," he expanded on his concept.

"What we are doing as football leaders is defending football. And when we defend football, we defend the football fans. It pains us to have to stop football, it causes significant economic loss to the clubs, it makes players and coaches lose competitiveness, and it deprives the public of a weekend with football. It's not a pleasant measure, but we thought it was necessary to put a stop to this and clarify the situation. So, to clarify the situation, a pause is needed. And I want to clarify that this was a decision by the club presidents, not by the AFA president or the treasurer," he clarified.

"I am neither an opponent nor anything. This has nothing to do with the current government. Of course, the affected economic interests are those of Grupo Clarín, those of Torneos y Competencias, which has lost the World Cup rights for its screens, and has lost the rights to all the lower division football, plus the international commercialization of all Argentine football. And that meant a profit of 27 million dollars in last year's balance. This is what we are discussing. So, to put things with names and amounts, this is a discussion about money, money that has to come to AFA, money that has to go to the clubs, money that has to serve football," he said.

Daniel Vila gave an opinion on Independiente Rivadavia vs. River

Then the blue leader was asked about the match that La Lepra will play against River. "What suits Independiente on Monday is to win. And the coach of River? That's River's problem. Independiente has its squad, its coaching staff, its playing system, it has clear concepts of what it has to do on the field, which of course sometimes doesn't work out. But Alfredo Berti in that sense sets up the matches very well. Of the last 8 matches, we have only lost one and won all the others, including the Copa Argentina one," he reviewed.

Vila spoke about Sebastián Villa

Finally, Vila referred to Sebastián Villa's current situation in La Lepra by saying: "He started, went from less to more, and I think we saw a Villa in the last match that is of extraordinary quality. He is an elite player, one of the best in Argentine football. If not the best."

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