The other final: 'Sub Zero' returns, River barra leader, war in Belgrano | OneFootball

By Gustavo Grabia for TyC Sports

The hooded man who stormed onto the field in the 2011 Promotion playoff is now the head of Los Borrachos del Tablón, and in Córdoba they expect him to try to get into the final. In the opposite stand, an internal conflict at boiling point over multimillion-dollar businesses and disputes over the World Cup.

This Sunday, Córdoba will host the final of the local tournament. And the province is on edge over River’s arrival with Los Borrachos del Tablón, but also because of the internal conflict in Belgrano’s barra brava, which has long threatened to explode in the worst possible way after several clashes since the beginning of this year. That is why, to make sure everything unfolds peacefully, a security operation has been set up with 1,100 provincial officers at the entrances and around the Mario Alberto Kempes stadium, as well as Gendarmerie forces deployed on the highway to monitor River’s violent supporters.

Although the entire operation will be coordinated by the local Security Ministry, groups from the Argentine Federal Police and the Anti-Narcotics division will also take part, in addition to the gendarmes. Added to that are those who will be monitoring the Tribuna Segura program, probably the one facing the biggest challenges this Sunday, given that the entire leadership of Los Borrachos is banned from entering stadiums but is also intent on getting in, while something similar is happening with Los Piratas Celestes de Alberdi, as the faction that controls the stand of the Córdoba team calls itself.

In River’s case, it is no small detail that the current leader, Mauro Ferreras, is the same fan who, with his face covered, ran on to attack his own players during the first leg of the 2011 Promotion playoff between River and Belgrano, played in Córdoba, which later sealed River’s relegation. Sub Zero, as he was dubbed at the time because of his resemblance to a character from the video game Mortal Kombat, is now the boss 15 years later, though he is banned from entering stadiums despite the influence he has over his crew. That ill-fated night he got onto the pitch, attacked Adalberto Román — who had just given away an absurd penalty — and then confronted referee Néstor Pitana and the leader of that squad, Matías Almeyda, face to face.

Sources in the Tribuna Segura program say he is the top target to be kept out. The six buses carrying the barra will leave from Figueroa Alcorta Avenue, very close to the entrance to the Monumental, and it has already been established that they will travel via the Pan-American Highway and Route 9 to the Rosario-Córdoba motorway. There will be checkpoints by the City Police, Buenos Aires provincial police, and Rosario police until they enter the central province, and at least two searches of every bus. Departure is expected around midnight on Saturday.

Mauro Ferreras, the one wearing the Argentina national team shirt and dark glasses, hugging Exequiel Palacios. The photo is from late 2023, when River beat Central in the Trofeo de Campeones in Santiago del Estero.

In Belgrano’s case, the situation is much hotter. The alliance between Pedro “Gitano” Minuet and Lucas Pavón, which drove longtime boss Roberto “Tito” Ponce out of the terraces, broke apart after two years of a marriage of convenience. Gitano kept control of the stand, with the backing of the club’s leadership, but Pavón, with strong union ties, is still trying to return with his group.

It is a story of betrayals, gunfire and money, as always. Minuet was actually Tito’s second-in-command, and among other things traveled with him to several World Cups and even became part of the leadership of Hinchadas Unidas Argentinas. But when Pavón appeared on the scene with the support of Mauricio Saillén, the head of the garbage collectors’ union, Gitano knew he either switched sides or he too would end up out of the stadium. Tito was given a sendoff, and that was that.

On the left, “Gitano” Minuet, at the Qatar World Cup. And on the right, Lucas Pavón.

The problem is that the former boss had been promised that despite his exit, he would still receive part of the profits generated by the stand. And that never happened. So “Crazy Tito” wanted to come back with his people, and there were five armed confrontations until the courts last year handed down suspended prison sentences along with stadium bans. That affected Pavón but not Gitano, who, seeing the opening, took everything over, which triggered from late 2025 onward another internal conflict that also featured shooting incidents until Minuet won in March of this year.

That was when those who had sided with him came out on top, including a heavyweight group from the Rivera Indarte area led by Leandro Moya, who also allied himself with two other branches of the barra: the downtown faction with Leonardo Brocal as leader, and the Arguello neighborhood faction headed by Sergio “Cucuya” Ibarra. This new group answers to Gitano, but they are also noticing strange dealings: three weeks before the World Cup, the only ones guaranteed trips are Minuet, who was in 2022 as the visible face of the Argentine barra, and his five longest-serving lieutenants. On top of that, there was a collection drive to pay for accommodations because the tickets are already being covered by the club leadership.

In that context, no one expected Belgrano to reach the final and open up the possibility of making huge money from ticket scalping and the naranjitas, Córdoba’s equivalent of Buenos Aires’ trapitos. Moya then took to social media to threaten Pavón not to even come close to trying to recover the lost cash flow, but also, more covertly, leader Minuet, so that the profits would be shared fairly and so that he and people from his group would go to the World Cup. In that post he says: “I’m going to take you down everywhere because I’ve got balls, I’m not afraid of going to prison. You are — you’re terrified of that. You got your membership card thanks to me, bunch of idiots. Now you’re not getting in anymore. As long as I’m around, you’re not getting in anymore.”

With this outlook, the final will be played on Sunday. That is why there is a massive operation in place to make sure nothing happens. 1,100 Córdoba police officers, 270 private security personnel, another 230 officers from different provinces who will monitor the roads, groups of gendarmes and Tribuna Segura officials. Yes, more than 1,500 uniformed personnel so that nothing tarnishes the promised celebration.

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