Daniel Avellaneda
08/24/2020 - 19:52
- Clarín.com
- sports
The football Ascent begins to stir. The delayed start of practices in the Professional Football League (LPF), driven by the firm decision of Conmebol to resume the Copa Libertadores, will be followed by a similar situation in the First National. In five days they will start with the tests and on Wednesday, September 2, with the return to field work. All in the middle of blue training rumors, of course. Although what worries the most in the second category is the reformulation of the championship. There are 7 projects in dance and the final one will be established a week before the beginning of spring.
The AFA decided not to continue with the championship that had Atlanta (38 points) and San Martín de Tucumán (44) leaders in Zones A and B. There were 9 dates remaining, but seven days ago it was decided to build a new championship. “We are analyzing the best format. What we are all clear about is that there must be a sporting advantage for the teams that added more points until the interruption of the tournament ”, commented Marcelo Achile , president of Defensores de Belgrano and the board of directors of the Primera Nacional, to Clarín .
The play was controversial, of course. Wasn't it easier to comply with the fixture and play a final and a Reduced for the second promotion as stipulated? The explanations do not close. After all, if the tournament starts on October 17, there will be 10 weekends until December 19.
The idea is to finish the tournament before the end of the year, but they don't want there to be football during the week. "It would be unfair to have to play Saturday and Wednesday after so much inactivity and with a minimal preseason," emphasized Achile. How will 32 teams play in such a short time?
Claudio Tapia, leaving a meeting at the Casa Rosada. (Photo Marcelo Carroll)
One possibility, the one that weighs the most at this time, is to create a double octagonal among the 16 best placed teams in a general table in a mini tournament and another among the 16 remaining. The members of the first Reduced would play for the first promotion. There would be a final, a team that would go up to the LPF and the loser would wait - with a sports advantage - for the winner of the second Reduced.
The possibility of creating two zones, one Metropolitan and the other National, was also studied, but this proposal was discarded. "We cannot regionalize the tournament for the sporting advantage. We ran the risk of being unbalanced," a leader who is in the kitchen of the Primera Nacional confided to Clarín .
The issue of travel is a worrying situation. Although the AMBA (Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires) continues to be the most complicated territory in the country, the pandemic worsened in the interior. Without going any further, Gimnasia de Jujuy has 6 positive cases. Another difficult situation is experienced in Tandil. Today, the mayor is not convinced that Santamarina will receive visiting teams.
Roberto Sagra, president of San Martín de Tucumán.
Just two examples that serve to define the scenario in which the leaders are standing. With a thorny issue that can modify all the plans: the claim of San Martín de Tucumán before the TAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport, according to its acronym in English), which Atlanta did not accompany.
Roberto Sagra , president of the Ciudadela club, litigates in Lausanne and demands his place in the LPF. What's more: he even asked to collect the television rights corresponding to the Primera teams.In the AFA they believe that it will have a setback and are based on a precedent in Switzerland, home of the TAS : Yverdon Sport FC (38 points) and FC Rapperswil-Jona (31) were first in the Promotion League (third division) when the ascents and descents. They asked to be promoted, but the Court did not grant the demand because it considered that the cancellation of the championship was an extraordinary situation as a result of the pandemic.