Deputy sports secretary on brink of quitting over Daniel Scioli | OneFootball

The Undersecretary of Sports, Diógenes de Urquiza, could leave his post in the coming hours following a change in the structure of the department, published Monday in the Official Gazette. That modification placed his department back under the authority of Daniel Scioli’s secretariat, with whom De Urquiza does not have a good relationship. Until now, he reported to Chief of Staff Diego Santilli, with whom he shares a background in Pro.

De Urquiza took office in July 2024 and is the third man from Mauricio Macri’s ranks in that department since Javier Milei’s administration began.

“He is evaluating it,” people close to De Urquiza told LA NACION when asked about his possible departure from the government. “We are waiting for him to make a decision,” sources in the Executive Branch said, aware of the differences between De Urquiza and Scioli.

Rumors about the official’s possible departure from the post began this morning, shortly after it became official that, amid the changes taking place in the structure of the Chief of Staff’s office, the Sports department was returning to Scioli’s orbit, as had been the case until last November.

But in recent hours those changes were reversed, and the Official Gazette announced that Scioli’s department was being delegated the authority to “sign cooperation agreements on all matters related to tourism, the environment, and sports, whether or not they involve budget expenditures, with provinces, municipalities, or other entities, agencies, and jurisdictions.”

That decision reversed what had happened last November, when Santilli took over at the Interior Ministry and Manuel Adorni at the Chief of Staff’s office. At that time, the Sports undersecretariat ceased to be grouped together with Tourism and Environment, which were under Scioli’s authority.

At the Casa Rosada, they acknowledged friction between De Urquiza and Scioli because the former governor of Buenos Aires Province “was very involved in the department when it depended on him,” and they argued that this was why, in November, when Santilli took office, the head of Sports asked to work under him.

Official sources added that De Urquiza had asked to serve ad honorem in the undersecretariat so that he could receive the salary of director of the National High Performance Sports Entity (ENARD). “The ENARD salary was higher,” they said, without giving details about the amounts.

The clashes may not have been only with Scioli. Mario Moccia, president of the Argentine Olympic Committee (COA) and head of ENARD, also allegedly asked De Urquiza to step aside. Moccia also dismissed Philippe Oudinot, a trusted associate of De Urquiza, under the pretext of an “administrative restructuring.”

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