AFA chief at loggerheads with country President over football in lieu of policies stating clubs should be public.
AFA chief And Argentina President At Loggerheads Over Privatization Of Football Clubs.
Argentina has won three World Cups and produced some of the world’s top football players.
However, there is a significant power struggle going on off the pitch between Claudio Tapia, the head of the Argentine Football Association, and Javier Milei, the president of Argentina.
Tapia is against Milei’s attempt to allow football teams to become sports limited corporations, based on the English Premier League model. Instead of private stockholders, he wants clubs to remain owned by their members.
Because of purported anomalies in Tapia’s re-election to a third term, the government threatened to become involved in AFA.
FIFA and CONMEBOL issued warnings during this conflict that any government meddling in AFA’s governance would lead to the organization’s disaffiliation and the exclusion of its teams from all competitions.
Last December, Milei, a libertarian economist who has advocated for economic deregulation. He signed an order allowing football teams that were formerly civil associations to become public limited companies. PLCs aim for profit, whereas the former do not pursue a commercial goal.
Additionally, the government granted sports associations, federations, and confederations a year starting in August to amend their statutes to accommodate this new organisational structure.
Clubs that wish to become sports corporations will need to get the approval of two-thirds of its members in attendance at an extraordinary assembly, and the new model is optional.
Milei declared that “poor socialism in football” must cease now and foresaw a flurry of investment.
According to AFA’s laws, sports corporations are not allowed to affiliate with or compete in its competitions. It succeeded in getting a court order to halt the decree. The administration appealed that decision, and the Supreme Court will have the final say.
“The clubs need to fulfill the function they fulfill as the civil associations that they are,” Tapia said. “I am convinced that that is its essence. Most clubs have an established statute that civil associations are not to be changed.”
So far, Estudiantes La Plata and Talleres de Cordoba are the only clubs in favour of allowing private capital football.