AFA May Delay Start of Apertura Season

Will the Monumental be empty this season?

The President of the Argentine Football Association, Julio Grondona, announced this week that the start of the upcoming Apertura season may be postponed as a result of players being owed money by their clubs. River Plate is one of several top level teams that have had complaints from the player’s union lodged against them for lack of payment.

Grondona also stated that unless the situation is resolved by August 11th, three days before the tournament was scheduled to begin, there will be no choice but to suspend the Apertura indefinitely.

The amount of money owed is staggering. In the Torneo Nacional alone, 7 clubs, Independiente, River Plate, Racing, San Lorenzo, Newell’s, Rosario Central, and Huracán, owe nearly $30 million dollars to their respective players.

The news is the unfortunate result of bad business decisions plaguing Argentine football for years. Clubs have long paid off their debts by selling players abroad, but higher salaries, a weakened economy, and questionable deals with agents who partially own rights to players (and who in turn take a portion of the players transfer fee), has created the worst economic crisis in Argentina’s football league since the player’s strike of 2001.

Julio Grondona:
“There is no doubt that the beginning of the tournament is at risk because several clubs have very big debts. We have asked for meetings in the coming days but we must put things in order, there’s a limit to everything.”

“Before, the players were part of the assets of the clubs. The invention of… agents was a misfortune. It can’t be that a person owns 30 percent of a player and another 40 (percent). It seems like we’re talking about cows.”

Category: Team News

Tags: Team News

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