Last Updated on 03/09/2024 by Arun jain
An attempt by Argentine President Javier Milli to allow the country to go through an emergency decree was blocked by a court on Monday.
Mill came to power in December promising to combat it by massively cutting public spending and privatizing the entire public sector.
And right-wing liberals want to apply the approach to football, too, with its most popular sport ravaged by poor financial management and corruption and needing investment in key infrastructure.
What is the controversy?
But the legal status of the Argentinian football club “Civic organizations“- non-profit civic organizations – with boards and presidents elected by thousands of members, can hold back private investors, who cannot control what is done with their money.
However, that status also gives the club immense socio-cultural value that goes far beyond football; Many clubs play a central role in their communities, with professional football operations helping to fund other sports and other cultural and educational pursuits within the club.
This was the argument made by the Argentine Football Association (AFA), which appealed against Miley’s emergency decree. He insisted that it operated a “solid model” and complained about “blatant state interference in private institutions,” which he said “violated numerous articles of the Constitution.”
Judge Elpidio Portocarrero Tezanos Pinto agreed and on Monday temporarily revoked the provisions of the decree “until a final judgment is issued”:
“Anyone who has been through the life of sports and social clubs cannot deny its transcendental importance to its development in any of its economic dimensions – including free.”
Divided over Argentine football investors
Argentina’s men’s team may be the reigning world champions internationally, but the domestic game has fallen far behind regional rivals, forcing Argentine clubs to sell their best players.
For Mille, who has criticized the “poverty model” of Argentine football on numerous occasions, the solution is privatization, including his own club, Buenos Aires giants Boca Juniors. “No more poverty socialism,” he posted on social platform X on July 12.
In December, a week after the start of his presidency, Miley took part in the club’s election to elect a new chairman.
Amid shouts and jeers from the other members, Miley voted for former Argentine president Mauricio Macri, now Miley’s coalition partner and an advocate of privatization, but the election was won by former Argentina international and Boca legend Juan Reclam.
“These people want to take over the club and privatize it. Then there will never be an election here again,” he warned.
Other Argentine football legends are divided on the privatization issue. Ex-Atletico Madrid striker Sergio Aguero, who came through the youth ranks at Independiente, outside Buenos Aires, has proposed his other former club Manchester City as an investor.
Hearing the suggestion, president Mille praised Aguero for his “extraordinary intelligence”, but while Aguero was at the club, Independiente president Andreas Ducatenzailer was furious: “Independiente paid for your books so you can even go to school! And now you want to privatize the club. Are you laughing?”
Is the German model a solution?
On the other hand, former Argentina international and Lazio, Manchester United and Inter Milan midfielder Juan Sebastian Veron, who is now president of Estudiantes, has advocated a model similar to the so-called German model.
The 50+1 rule allows German football clubs to spin off their professional football operations into separate, commercial entities in which the parent clubs and their members must retain at least 50% of the voting rights plus a voting stake.
But even this seems unsatisfying both to Argentine club members who oppose any form of privatization and to investors who want full control over their investments.
mf/wmr (EFE, EPD)
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