Daniel Avellaneda
07/13/2020 - 20:06
- Clarín.com
- sports
The Conmebol agenda goes against the health policy of the National Government. After all, Argentina is not the navel of South America. And the slap of the drowned that Claudio Tapia hit on Friday, when he lost the vote to resume the Libertadores in October, had his internal blows. The Luque-based body has already warned that there are no possibilities to modify the start date of the Cup , scheduled for the week of September 15. So, a few leaders press in the AFA to return to training. Yes: the same ones who did not want to know anything about resuming field work before June 30, the day that 2,100 contracts ended, 292 in the First Division.
The goal is that players can train at the latest in the first week of August. The initiative of the clubs, which sent a letter to Tapia asking him to delay the participation of the teams in the Libertadores by a week and to speed up the return to training, was left in the recycling bin. From Conmebol they were forceful : the calendar cannot be modified. At most, they will try to get Boca, River, Racing, Defense and Justice and Tigre to play only on Thursday, September 17. They can hardly schedule five games on the same day.
Why did Conmebol choose the week before spring to reopen the game? And why did you ignore the AFA's request? How much will that old quarrel have had to do between Tapia and Alejandro Domínguez, who first argued for the location of the Copa América final and then, for the sayings of Lionel Messi after the contest that took place last year in Brazil? Is it an invoice pass?
As Clarín could find out , from Asunción they use a series of reasons why they lowered their thumb at Argentina's request. To begin with, he went to a vote and lost 7 to 1. The only vote in favor of delaying the continental tournament was that of Chiqui . There were two abstentions: the Venezuelan Football Federation (FVF), whose president, Jesús Berardinelli, has not yet passed the suitability test; and the Bolivian Football Federation (FBF), because its owner, César Salinas, was hospitalized with symptoms of coronavirus. Later, there were a series of situations that, placed in the balance of Domínguez, did not warrant changing plans.
“Argentina was the only country that closed its season and distributed the quotas for the cups. It is the one with fewer calendar problems. The rest of the countries are fully defining their competences, ” an influential leader in Paraguay told Clarín . The rush to close the 2020/2021 chapter in March, when a date for the Super League Cup had hardly been disputed, had the goal of flattening the salary mass, breaking with the market and sincere the economies of the clubs. Until July 1, all spoke in the same sense, protected in the quarantine established by the Government of Alberto Fernández.
The presidents of the five big clubs, together with Tapia in March. (Photo: AFA press)
In Conmebol they consider that Argentina has other economic possibilities, beyond the advance that was given to all the clubs participating in the continental tournaments in the region: it is the only country that received help from the Government and that continued to collect the television cache. All the entities accessed the ATP (Assistance to Work and Production) to pay the salaries of the employees and the chains that broadcast the local championship games did not stop paying.
“In all countries, the industry is falling apart. They need to reactivate, they do not have state aid or money from TV, ”they emphasized at Conmebol, which also warned that it would start the competition 66 days before and adhered to the protocol that reported in due time and form: each team must start the Cup with a minimum of 15 days of training.
In that sense, the leaders are anxious. Returning in "phase 4" and "all together" , as Tapia declared, seems unlikely after July 17, as those who drive the destinies of the cup teams want. Even so, next week will be key. Then, there would be a meeting between Chiqui , Marcelo Tinelli, top managers of the Professional Soccer League (LPF) and the ministers of Health, Ginés González García, and Tourism and Sports, Matías Lammens, to start defining the date of return to the training. They would return in a staggered fashion, with the First Division and the First National leading the way.
Tapia, Domínguez, Lammens and Massa, during a meeting in December of last year with President Alberto Fernández. (Photo: EFE)
The Government is the one that has in its hands the possibility of giving the green light to football. Both González García and Lammens were cautious. The official who is in charge of the Health portfolio was upset with Conmebol's decision. The one of Tourism and Sports, who is also vice president of San Lorenzo, assured that "the conditions are not given in the AMBA" for the return to practices. None of them liked that Nicolás Russo, boss of Lanús, had spoken of August 5 and 10 as the probable date for the return to the playing fields in groups.
The AFA already has its own medical protocol, which must be submitted to government authorities. And who will be in charge of the tests? "We have millions, that's not a problem," said Ginés. In Viamonte they received 600 thousand dollars from Conmebol, 200 thousand to fight Covid-19. The idea is to use it to finance the clubs of the Ascent. It is estimated that each team will need 750 thousand pesos per month to detect infections. Money, precisely, is not a minor issue.
