With a difficult front in Promotion, the 28-team tournament in First Division is increasingly possible

Daniel Avellaneda

06/21/2020 - 16:00

• Clarín.com
• sports

It is football in times of Zoom. Virtual thread, chats through small windows that multiply on the computer screen and few definitions. There is no certainty regarding the date on which training will resume, possibly in August. Much less, when will the championships begin, perhaps in late September or October. The truth is that an idea advances, already looking towards next year, and taking into account the claim that led to the TAS San Martín de Tucumán. Is it possible to think of a Professional Soccer League with 28 teams and the restitution of the declines for 2021?

"It would be an elegant way out," says a leader who used to pass through the Puerto Madero office where the former Superliga operated, regardless of the sloppy decisions that led to the dispute that brought San Martín to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Ending the 2019/2020 season, dividing the quotas for international cups and suppressing the decreases generated controversy. Above all, this last point. And it generated the reaction of San Martín, whose leaders asked in Switzerland for promotion to the First Division for sporting merit. There was a wink for the Ciruja and a setback for the AFA: from Viamonte a resolution was demanded before June 30; the Court, contrary to the wishes of the mother house of the ball, extended the terms for the foundation of the tucumanos until July 2.

San Martín is not alone. And although Atlanta does not officially accompany because its leaders are columnated with Claudio Tapia, the word of Gastón Granados, mayor of Ezeiza, former president and emblematic partner of Tristán Suárez, weighed the word. "The AFA has to put aside a whim of punctual leaders and enforce the institutional framework. Almirante Brown and Tristán Suárez have to play in the First Division; Deportivo Merlo in B and Atlas in C. I did not decide that the tournament should end. , the AFA decided. We are to death with San Martín and if we have to go to TAS, unfortunately we will go to TAS. But it would be a shame if a question of its own is resolved in Switzerland. If they defined that the tournament ended, it ended " , he emphasized on Radio La Red.

It was not by chance that Granados had raised his voice and not the president of Tristán Suárez, Oscar Vergara. The leader does not want to face the AFA. But politics begins to put its wedge. First, Alberto Fernández shot, who during an interview questioned the organization of the championships and mentioned - and not in a whimsical way - Atlanta. Last week Gregorio Dalbón, attorney for Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and representative of federal judge Miguel Licht - fan of the bohemian , who was sued by Pablo Toviggino, executive secretary of the presidency in the Viamonte structure - had thrown darts . Now another Peronist emerged on the scene. Everything in the middle of the movements of the Kirchner, interested in integrating a soccer table in which for now Sergio Massa, president of the Chamber of Deputies, has more weight.

"It doesn't make sense that the blood reaches the river," they slide near Marcelo Tinelli. Do you think the same in Viamonte? Toviggino is firm with the stance that tournaments are defined on the court. But there are those who believe that litigation in the Lausanne sports courts would not be appropriate. Those same think that they could go up San Martín and Atlanta –pointers of Zones 1 and 2-, put together a Reduced and enact two other promotions . "You have to convince River and Boca," they told Clarín . Everything has to do, of course, with the distribution of money from television.

And regarding this point, a greater number of teams in Primera would allow distributing some matches to be broadcast on open channels. Simultaneously, it would decrease the tension with the players, who strongly oppose the suppression of the descents.

And the rest of the categories? The promotions would be a relief because, beyond the desire to define them on the field, there would not only be a significant saving in testing; There is also no structure for the new normality of soccer, that of the protocols imposed by the coronavirus. Playing B, C, D and Federal A in 2021 would be the most logical option.

"There is nothing like that," insist the AFA. It will be seen. Times are running. Also, the pressures. And it wouldn't be the first time changing on the go, of course.