On Thursday, January 25, the draw was held and on Saturday, January 24, the first date will be played, which was originally scheduled for this Saturday, January 27, of the new tournament in Argentine soccer: the
Promotional Amateur.
14 new teams will participate, all as guests and, finally, with two promotions at stake and players under 26 years of age who have never signed a professional contract in Argentina or abroad.
This was decided in the last week with the direct intervention of
Claudio Tapia
, the president of the AFA, and it was the big news, since in principle there were no promotions going to be seen in 2024 and the players had to be under 25 years of age.
Officially it will not be within the AFA structure during the first season, although the final text of the category regulations is not yet known, which in principle will be published this Thursday, February 1.
The structure of the championship will not have many new features.
The 14 clubs will play a 13-date Apertura tournament, all against all.
The champion will secure first promotion.
Then, the Clausura and that will give another promotion.
If it is the same club, the runners-up of each competition will play in a final to reach Primera C. In addition, the two winners will compete in a final, the Champions Cup, as happens in Primera with the Champions Trophy.
In parallel, the clubs will be able to continue playing in
their leagues, as Newell's and Central do in Rosarina
, for example, after joining the AFA in 1939. They will also continue to play, at least this year, the Federal Amateur, as is the case of Truckers.
Of the 14 teams involved, there are eight that have a lot of history and two of them were already affiliated with the AFA.
Of the other six,
three are related to unions
, one was founded in 2006 by a mayor and its stadium is named after
Chiqui
Tapia
and
another two were founded recently, as if "guessing" that a new opportunity would open shortly to get into the structure of official football and, why not, one day reach First Division as Deportivo Riestra achieved last year.
On the first date the following will be measured: Deportivo Metalúrgico - Belgrano de Zárate;
SAT - Everton de La Plata;
Glew Defenders - FC Ezeiza;
Juventud De Bernal - Barrancas FC;
Provincial of Lobos - Estrella del Sur;
Berisso Star - Truckers;
and Atlético Pilar- Nautico Hacoaj
The two “unknown” clubs are
Barrancas Umet Fútbol Club
and
Fútbol Club Ezeiza
.
On Wednesday, January 10, with his presentation already confirmed, Barrancas expressed his joy on his official X account (formerly Twitter), opened on November 21, 2023 (also that day he launched his Instagram account).
In it, they affirm that it is an entity that emerged from university football and is signed by
Patricio Degiorgis
, as a member of the Board of Directors.
From Barrancas @umeteduar FC we are happy to be part of the 2024 Amateur Promotional Tournament🏆
Thank you very much @AFA!
pic.twitter.com/vk6nkos9M1
— Barrancas Umet FC (@BarrancasFC) January 10, 2024
Umet
is the Metropolitan University for Education and Work
, with headquarters at 2000 Sarmiento Street and founded in 2013 by
Víctor Santamaría
, the general secretary of SUTERH (the one in charge of the building).
And last October, the AFA presented, in conjunction with Umet, a program for “
training leaders of Argentine soccer in all categories and from all regions of the country
.”
Meanwhile,
Patricio Degiorgis
is vice president of Institutional Management at the University of Belgrano, director of CESIUB and director of the European Union-UCES Chair, and the name of Barrancas is more related to Barrancas de Belgrano.
In December,
Fabián Ambrosio
, who had just directed the tournaments at the University of Belgrano, was introduced as technical director and was in charge of the player testing.
From this union of two university entities of different extractions, there are several leaders linked to the PRO.
In fact, the president is the journalist
Enrique Sacco
, who is married to
María Eugenia Vidal
, former governor of the province of Buenos Aires and current national representative for Together for Change.
In addition, the treasurer is
Alex Campbell
, senator of the province of Buenos Aires and vice president of institutional relations at River.
Among the members are
Nicolás Casas
and
Ezequiel Bissio
, both provincial officials during Vidal's governorship.
Although
Víctor Santamaría
is a reference for Peronism in the City of Buenos Aires and has no references in the CD of Barrancas,
the agreement is not only to promote university football but that Umet has legal status and Barrancas does not.
Surely when the paperwork is complete, Barrancas FC will say that it was founded on August 16, 2023 on the corner of Zabala and Arribeños, in the heart of Belgrano.
Sacco, current manager of the TNT Sports channel - which has the television rights of the Professional League - has already approached the AFA from two places, first as the visible face of Sportivo Barracas Bolívar, a management that reached the historic club of Barracas to play in the 2003/04 season in Bolívar, the city where Sacco and also
Marcelo Tinelli
were born ;
and also, he was part of the communication of the defunct Argentine Football Super League (SAF).
Meanwhile, Fútbol Club Ezeiza was founded in 2021 by
Santiago
Toki
Galván
, former player, and a group of boys who had been in Tristán Suárez.
Galván is, in addition to being president, the coach.
The following year he entered to play in the San Vicente Metropolitan League.
One of its players is
Santiago Maratea
, the influencer who carried out the solidarity collection in Independiente last year.
He did the same thing in May 2022, to put the land that the Municipality gave to the club in condition.
That's why the stadium is named after him.
Since last year he has been playing for the club, he continues to train but it is unlikely that he will participate in the tournament, since he is 31 years old and the age limit is 26.
EZEIZA DOESN'T STOP 👊🏻
Some of the images from the fourth day of #Preseason in #FCEzeiza during the first shift on Thursday.
At 5 pm we resumed training. #VamosEzeiza #Preseason
🇫🇮🇫🇮🇫🇮💙💙💙 pic.twitter.com/igTXqcHzlu
— Futbol Club Ezeiza (@FCEzeiza) January 11, 2024
The three clubs that are linked to the unions are identified by their names: Club Atlético Social y Deportivo Camioneros (founded in 2009), Deportivo Metalúrgico (2018) and Social Atlético Televisión (2017).
The club founded by the Moyanos, especially Pablo, who is its president, also has many sports activities (women's soccer, futsal, rugby, hockey, cycling, boxing, athletics, volleyball), is in the town of Esteban Echeverría, it began playing in the Lujanense League and participated in several federal tournaments.
Hugo Pachorra Smaldone, former midfielder for San Telmo and Atlanta among others, is the coach.
⚽️ 🚦Expansion
:
Can the Regional and Promotional?
YEAH.
They are two tournaments in which you can compete without problems.
One belongs to Liga Lujanense and the other directly to AFA in the process of affiliation.
pic.twitter.com/qNpN0P1wBT
— Club Camioneros (@casdcamioneros) January 5, 2024
The metallurgists are located in Del Viso and play in the Escobarense League.
They have futsal and women's soccer.
The coach of the team that is preparing to play the Promotional tournament is Juan Steinbach.
The SAT is known for its women's team, which has been playing in the AFA First Division for several years.
It has its stadium, August 12 known as Satsaid after the name of the union, in La Reja (Moreno).
Like Truckers, it also has several sports disciplines.
Men's soccer has competed since 2011 in the Lujanense League.
🚨FRIENDLY CONFIRMED
SAT, Juventud de Bernal and Estrella del Sur start the preseason friendlies ahead of the Amateur Promotional Tournament.#TorneoPromocionalAmateur#Afa #SAT #EstrellaDelSur #JuventudDeBernal #CentroEspañol #DeportivoParaguayo pic.twitter.com/yAC2yJPt3W
— D+ Futbol (@DMasFutbol) January 10, 2024
Alejandro Korn's Star of the South is also short-lived.
It was founded in 2006 by physical education teacher Nicolás Mantegazza when he was 22 years old.
From a Peronist family, in 2013 he was elected councilor, in 2019 mayor of San Vicente and before the pandemic he created the Metropolitan Football League with 22 teams.
In October 2023 he won re-election.
The stadium was reopened in March of last year, with the presence of Claudio Tapia, who was named after him.
"
Whoever is speaking to you thought that the only stadium that was going to bear his name was Barracas Central and today to have the possibility of being here fulfilling Nicolás with this tribute, with this surprise that the stadium bears my name, is a source of pride
," were the words of the president of the AFA at that time.
For the first time, San Vicente will have a team in AFA tournaments.
This is Estrella del Sur, one of Alejandro Korn's clubs, which named its stadium after Chiqui Tapia. https://t.co/pe7gKrl5px
— InfoRegión (@InfoRegionArg) December 28, 2023
Estrella del Sur finished fourth in the last Metropolitan League tournament, and the champion was Defensores de Glew, which was also invited by the AFA.
It was founded in 1920, it participates in rugby tournaments, and the brothers Lautaro and Rodrigo Acosta, its current coach, emerged from its childhood soccer.
Two clubs from this League will be in AFA.
But Glew's is not the oldest.
That place is occupied by Everton de La Plata, historic protagonist of the La Plata Amateur Soccer League.
It was even the first champion, in 1913. But unlike its contemporaries Estudiantes and Gimnasia, it was never affiliated with the AFA and its predecessors.
As an indirect affiliate, through the Federal Council of the La Plata league, he participated in internal tournaments and in 2013 he reached Argentino B, the fourth category of the promotion structure at that time.
🔜🚀 Preparing the return pic.twitter.com/jXBiI0m8fn
— Club Everton La Plata (@EvertonLaPlata_) January 29, 2024
Atlético Pilar, founded in 1905, has the red and white colors just like Alumni, the great team of the first decade of the 20th century.
It was affiliated with the AFA for 25 years, from 1955 to 1980 and shared the category with nine teams that later played in the First Division (among them Riestra, which debuted this season).
He was always in First D, a total of 530 games, with 152 wins, 97 draws, 281 losses, 853 goals for and 1,293 against.
Juventud de Bernal was also affiliated with the AFA.
It arrived in 1945 with the name Juventud de Villa Crámer, which changed it the following year to Bernal and remained until 1969. In 1956 it was runner-up in Amateurs (First D).
In D (fourth category) he played 19 tournaments and a total of 402 games, with 156 wins, 84 draws, 162 losses, 880 goals for and 867 against;
In C (third category) they played 6 tournaments, with 142 games, 48 wins, 23 draws, 71 losses, 319 goals for and 352 against.
The announcement of the beginning of the 1945 tournament in which Juventud de Villa Crámer (later Bernal) debuted
Of the remaining four teams, the oldest is
Belgrano de Zárate
, founded in 1920. From the city, only Defensores Unidos has been in AFA since 1966. But from Belgrano's youth teams emerged one of the great players of Argentine soccer: Ricardo Enrique Bochini .
In 2013 it reached the Argentine B Tournament. In 2018 its stadium was the scene of several Primera D matches, since Muñiz moved its home there.
Belgrano de Zárate court, Bochini's first club.
(Photo: San Grazzia)
Estrella de Berisso
was founded in 1921 and was also one of the animators of the Platense Amateur League, in which it was crowned champion 20 times.
With the structure that began in 1995 with Argentinos A and B, in 2003 it arrived, through the Torneo del Interior, to Argentino B.
The
Náutico Hacoaj
, founded in 1934, is one of the most important institutions of the Jewish community.
But she won't be the first to be on AFA's radar.
The Macabi Hebrew Organization was affiliated between 1953 and 1968, always in D except for the last year when it played in the First C tournament and then disaffiliated.
Náutico plays in the Escobarense League and played in the Federal B and a previous round of the Argentine Cup.
Finally,
Unión Deportivo Provincial
, from Empalme Lobos, is a club founded in 1938 and has a beach soccer team playing in AFA.
The Secretary of Sports of the Municipality of Lobos is the former player
Leandro Lázzaro
, who came to play in Provincial, and is one of the main promoters of the participation of this entity in the new AFA tournament.
In that city there is still one of the oldest Argentine soccer teams, Lobos Athletic, founded in 1892. Linked to the English community, it played the first tournaments of the first official League, until the leaders decided that the affiliated teams should be within a radius no greater than 60 kilometers, which forced their disaffiliation.
Many of its players later joined the ranks of Alumni, the great champion of the first decade of the 20th century.
In one of the previous meetings that took place on the third floor of the AFA on Viamonte Street,
Dante Majori,
president of Yupanqui and leader in charge of organizing the tournament, expressed: “
This new championship is a very important step for Soccer Argentinian, we are very excited and committed to having an excellent championship, at the level of the World Champion Association
."
Dante Majori, together with Hugo Moyano, president of Yupanqui and in charge of organizing the tournament.
There were three teams that were left halfway, for different reasons.
When it was initially mentioned that the tournament would have 16 invited clubs, there were Country Canning (ADCC) and Asociación Cristiana de Fútbol Argentino (ACFA).
In addition, the Atlético Bajo San Isidro club presented the papers on time but the decision to play with 14 had already been made.
As two promotions were defined, it remains to be known if there will be relegations from C to the new tournament (for now only a disaffiliation) and if the 12 who do not manage to rise will continue in 2025 or there will be replacements.
It's still a mystery
.