Riquelme sparks row over Villa: director quits over Boca return | OneFootball

Juan Román Riquelme sparked major internal conflict within his Board of Directors after deciding on Sebastián Villa’s return to the club. One executive requested a leave of absence to express his opposition to the controversial decision made by Boca’s president.

It is Matías Daglio, a member of the Board of Directors chaired by Riquelme and a member of the “Boca es Pueblo” organization. Through a statement, they expressed their rejection of the Colombian footballer’s return to the institution.

In the statement they made public, they listed the reasons why Sebastián Villa’s return to Boca is “a strategic mistake and contradicts the spirit under which people were called to vote in the last election under the slogan ‘the club belongs to the members’”. They also explained that the executive’s leave of absence will last through September 30 inclusive.

The statement against Riquelme’s decision

The Boca es Pueblo statement begins: “We want to express our rejection of the player’s signing, just as we did at the time before the club authorities when the signing was only a rumor. The reasons we put forward are neither few nor crazy: Villa walked out on the institution while still under contract, considered himself dismissed simply because he was not a starter, and signed a contract with another club.”

Along the same lines, it continues: “Not only did he not leave a single peso for Boca; not content with that, he initiated legal action against our institution. Just a few months ago, he said he dreamed of playing for our biggest rival. All of those actions carried out by the player make us fully agree with the statements our president made a few years ago: ‘he disrespected the club, the shirt, and his teammates.’”

“Moreover, today he returns through a multimillion-dollar investment ($7 million for a 30-year-old player), an investment far greater even than the one made when the club first bought his transfer rights 8 years ago ($2.5 million). This sets an unprecedented precedent in our history, even though this same administration upheld, some time ago, the criterion of not signing people who had litigated against the club, as happened with Federico Insúa,” they said.

In the same statement, they added: “Just as we condemned the acts of violence involving Sebastián Villa in 2020 and spoke out after his conviction in 2023, which was the main reason he was removed from the squad, we once again feel the need and the responsibility to do so. At Boca es Pueblo, we have worked for years to make progress across the board on gender issues and not only in one specific area.”

And they added: “We have supported and proposed many initiatives that have enriched various areas of the club’s institutional life, for male and female members, athletes, and employees. That is why we cannot help but interpret this return as a contradiction of the path the club itself decided to follow in recent years. We firmly believe that the club needs both clear rules and consistency in actions. When principles become exceptions depending on the circumstances or the person involved, what is weakened is not only one decision: trust in the institution’s word is also undermined.”

Juan Román Riquelme politically exposed himself over Villa’s return.

Continuing their opposition to Boca’s president, they added: “We were elected by the members to represent an idea of the club, to strengthen its identity and protect its assets, which is why we believe this decision constitutes a serious strategic mistake and contradicts the spirit under which people were called to vote in the last election under the slogan ‘the club belongs to the members.’ During these years we supported numerous initiatives, expressed differences over others, and understood, as is fitting in any undertaking that is supposed to be collective, that governing means managing diverse points of view.”

They stated that: “we also believe that political responsibility consists of honestly pointing out those decisions that we understand to depart from the principles that gave rise to that project. When the most important decisions begin to move away from the banners that brought thousands of members to support this process, concessions stop being an exercise in political maturity and run the risk of becoming an abandonment of the values that identify us.”

To close the statement, “Boca es Pueblo” said: “Villa may score a thousand goals and of course we will celebrate them like any Boca goal, because Boca is what matters. But because Boca matters so much, we have to protect it in every way; from those who use it and from those who disrespect it or act against its assets, as we have done throughout our history when facing figures with much more weight than the player in question.”

“There are no goals or titles that erase disrespect toward the Boca crest. But don’t get confused: for 14 years we have been organized to try to change what seems unfair and wrong to us, without ever stopping supporting Boca. No matter who plays, no matter who is president, we will keep being in the stands cheering for all 90 minutes, and the rest of the time available to the club for whatever we can help with, never lowering our flag, which is Boca’s.”

Keep reading:

The reinforcements arrived late: Álvaro Montero and Sebastián Villa will not travel to Rosario with Boca

Arruabarrena’s first official squad list: Boca’s call-ups vs. Sarmiento

Boca is close to selling Exequiel Zeballos to Napoli

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