A debate over the soul of soccer is raging in FIFA World Cup holders Argentina, pitting defenders of the social role of the beautiful game against the government of libertarian Argentine President Javier Milei, who wants to turn clubs into for-profit companies.
Argentina, which gave the world Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi, is home to some of the world’s most devoted soccer fans — a fact attributed by supporters like Gabriel Nicosia to the clubs’ community outreach.
Nicosia is a lifelong supporter of San Lorenzo, a more than 100-year-old first division club based in the working-class Buenos Aires neighborhood of Boedo where he grew up.
Photo: AP
Several times a week he crosses town to have a coffee or work out in the club of which Argentina-born Pope Francis is a fan.
“When I come here I meet my childhood friends. It’s a fundamental pillar of everyday life,” said the 50-year-old accountant, one of 80,000 members of a club whose stadium can only seat 48,000.
Membership can be acquired for a modest 22,000 pesos (US$22) a month and comes with a vote on the club’s management and tickets to local games.
The club’s role as the glue that binds the community is underscored by the 300 scholarships it awards each year to young people from a nearby shantytown.
The recipients get to indulge their own dreams of fame and fortune by hanging out close to the training grounds of millionaire players. Advocates of the not-for-profit model fear that this outreach could become a thing of the past if Milei manages to impose his free-marketeer vision on the clubs.
The president, an ardent defender of deregulation in all spheres of society, wants to change the statutes of the country’s several thousand soccer clubs to allow them to become privately owned for-profit companies.
During campaigning for president last year, Milei cited Buenos Aires’ famous Boca Juniors, of which he is a fan, saying: “No one cares who the owner is if you beat [arch-rivals] River Plate 5-0 and you win the [FIFA] Club World Cup.”
The alternative was to “live with the misery that is Argentine football, which is deteriorating by the day,” he said.
However, many Argentine clubs are firmly opposed to any change of ownership.
“Our club belongs to its people, its members and its partners who make it greater each day,” Boca Juniors said.
Argentine Football Association (AFA) president Claudio Tapia, who has one FIFA World Cup (2022) and two Copa America (2021, 2024) titles under his belt, has also made no secret of his opposition to the reforms.
It’s “not our football model,” Tapia, whose re-election to another four-year term last month was seen as a rebuke to Milei’s reform, told an AFA assembly in August.
The president, a self-described “anarcho-capitalist,” has forged ahead regardless.
In August, his government ordered the AFA to amend its statutes to allow for-profit clubs to join.
The decree was suspended by a court in September pending the outcome of a legal challenge by the AFA.
In Latin America, the pressure on clubs to open up to private investors is not unique to Argentina.
In 2021, Brazil changed its laws to allow for-profit clubs and Argentina’s neighbor Uruguay has also adopted the model.
Some clubs see outside investment as a way to grow, attract new talent and ensure their long-term viability.
Membership fees “are not enough” to cover a club’s costs, San Lorenzo director Martin Cigna said, adding that without TV rights and transfer fees, his club would be running “a million-dollar deficit.”
Former Argentina international Juan Sebastian Veron, who is president of another venerable club, Estudiantes, said they were preparing for a change to a “hybrid” model that would combine a “social” role with private funding.
The ball is still up in the air but tensions are rising between the AFA and Milei.
The president has vowed to investigate “irregularities” at the AFA, whose leadership he has compared to that of authoritarian Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
However, for the moment, soccer fans are on the AFA’s side.
A poll carried out by sports think tank Tactica showed that 60.2 percent of Argentines interested in the sport opposed a change in the clubs’ ownership.
BUMRAH WATCH: Captain Jasprit Bumrah left the SCG for scans for back spasms and although he returned to the ground, there was no word on if he would play Rishabh Pant’s blistering counterattack yesterday capped a chaotic second day of the fifth and final Test between Australia and India, with 15 wickets falling and the star bowler of the series leaving the Sydney Cricket Ground with an ambulance escort. Yet the Border-Gavaskar trophy still remains very much in the balance as India reached 141-6, holding a 145-run lead over Australia with three days remaining. “Low-scoring games like this, it just heightens the pressure within it, so long way still to go,” Australia coach Andrew McDonald said. “There’s gonna be plenty of cricket, so we’ll see what happens.” Australia were bowled out for
Elena Rybakina’s Kazakhstan yesterday dumped defending champions Germany out of the United Cup with world No. 2 Alexander Zverev sidelined by an arm injury barely a week away from the Australian Open. The upset in Perth sent the Kazakhs into the semi-finals of the 18-nation tournament. In Sydney, women’s world No. 2 Iga Swiatek led Poland into the last eight by winning a rematch of her 2023 French Open final against Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic. Britain also progressed to the quarter-finals with Katie Boulter’s dominant 6-2, 6-1 victory over Australia’s Olivia Gadecki enough to guarantee they won their group. The US and
HAT-TRICK PREP: World No. 1 Sabalenka clinched her first win of the season, as she aims to become the first woman in 20 years to win three Australian Opens in succession Coco Gauff, Jasmine Paolini and Taylor Fritz yesterday all clocked impressive wins as tennis powerhouses Italy and the US surged into the quarter-finals of the mixed-team United Cup. World No. 3 Gauff swept past Croatia’s Donna Vekic 6-4, 6-2 to avenge a loss at the Paris Olympics, while Fritz took care of Borna Coric 6-3, 6-2 in searing Perth heat. That was enough to put the Americans — last year’s winners — into a last-eight clash with China today, while Elena Rybakina’s Kazakhstan today are to meet defending champions Germany, led by Alexander Zverev, in the other Perth quarter-final. In Sydney, the in-form
Five-time Grand Slam champion Iga Swiatek yesterday beat Elena Rybakina in straight sets to take Poland into the final of the mixed-teams United Cup with victory over Kazakhstan. Last year’s runners-up face the US today for the title in Sydney after they beat the Czech Republic in the other semi-final. “This win makes me really proud,” Swiatek said after seeing off Rybakina 7-6 (7/5), 6-4 to give Poland an unassailable 2-0 lead in the tie. It was a statement of intent from the world number two with the first major of the year to start on Jan. 12. “It is perfect preparation for the
RSS