In his 33-year professional career as a coach,
Carlos Timoteo Griguol
never coached in the second division of Argentine soccer.
Despite this, the name of the coach, who died in May 2021, will be the one that will carry the 40th edition of the
First National
tournament which, after an intense transfer market, will begin this Friday with a large number of renowned footballers in the teams, record of participants and nine clubs that were champions of First Division tournaments or national cups.
“We always look for names that we think leave a message. Griguol's speaks for itself about what he left to the players, the sport, and the values he had. Furthermore, this year marks 40 years since Ferro won the 1984 National with him. "It was thought about for all that
," explained Marcelo Achile, president of Defensores de Belgrano and the Board of Directors of the Primera Nacional, and vice president of the Argentine Football Association, the category's decision to honor the former Ferro, Gimnasia, Rosario coach. Central and River, among other clubs.
With the aura of the
Old Man
flying over Carlos Casares, the Ofelia Rosenzuaig stadium will be the venue for the meeting that, starting at 5:10 p.m., will be played by Agropecuario and Patronato.
It will be the first of the
744 matches
that the contest will cover, in which
38 teams
will compete (one more than last year and more than in any of the 39 previous editions) that will represent 12 provinces and the City of Buenos Aires.
Only one weekend of rest (June 15 and 16) will offer this championship that will extend until the first week of December.
The 38 teams will be divided into two zones, in which they will face each other in two rounds.
On each date there will be an interzonal crossing that will allow some classics to be played such as Alvarado-Aldosivi, Güemes-Mitre and Guillermo Brown-Deportivo Madryn.
On the other hand,
they were not paired in interzonal matches, despite being in different groups, Nueva Chicago-All Boys and Atlanta-Chacarita
, so the tournament will be deprived of two very powerful duels.
Gimnasia y Tiro de Salta became champion of the Federal A Tournament and will play again in the Primera Nacional after almost 24 years.
As is customary in recent seasons, due to the number of participants and the structure of the competition,
the contest will be extremely demanding for the teams and will require them to travel thousands of kilometers, mostly by land
.
As an example, it is worth mentioning that in the next two months
Racing de Córdoba
will appear in Puerto Madryn, Buenos Aires, Paraná, Río Cuarto and Santiago del Estero.
And
Gimnasia de Jujuy
will play in Tucumán, San Juan, Carlos Casares, Ezeiza and Córdoba.
The tournament will put two promotions to the Professional League at stake.
The first will be played by the two teams that finish as leaders in each of the zones once the 38 dates have been completed: they will meet in a final on a neutral field that will consecrate the champion of the category.
The other ticket to the first division will be resolved in a reduced competition in which the loser of the final and the 14 teams located between second and eighth place in each of the zones will participate.
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First National Clubs
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Source:
CLARIN
Infographic:
Clarín
At the other end of the illusions and concerns,
three clubs will lose their place in the Primera Nacional at the end of the season and will fall to the Primera B or the Federal A Tournament
, depending on whether they are directly or indirectly affiliated with the AFA.
Two relegations will correspond to the bottom of each of the zones.
The remainder will be resolved in a head-to-head match between the second-to-last two.
In any case, a similar scheme had been agreed upon in 2023, but on October 23, a week after the regular stage ended, the AFA Executive Committee decided to annul the third relegation.
After almost 29 years without playing in the second division, Talleres de Remedios de Escalada returns to the First National.
Photo: Telam.
This year there will be no
Independiente Rivadavia
and
Deportivo Riestra
, who were promoted and are already playing in the Professional League Cup, nor Flandria and Villa Dálmine, who were relegated.
Instead, three teams that have not competed in the second division for more than two decades will join:
Talleres de Remedios de Escalada
y
Gimnasia y Tiro de Salta
, champions of Primera B and Federal A in 2023, and
San Miguel
, which won the third promotion in a final against Douglas Haig of Pergamino.
The two relegated from the First Division will also join:
Colón
and
Arsenal
.
The Santa Fe team, winner of the 2021 Professional League Cup, and Sarandí, champion of the 2012 Clausura Tournament, are two of the nine participants in this edition of the Primera Nacional competition that have ever won a First Division tournament or a national cup recognized by the AFA: the others are
Ferro
(Nacional 1982 and 1984),
Quilmes
(Metropolitano 1978, Championship 1912 and Copa de Honor 1908),
Chacarita
(Metropolitano 1969),
Patronato
(Argentine Cup 2022),
Atlanta
(Swedish Cup 1958),
Estudiantes
(Jockey Club Competition Cup 1910) and
San Martín de Tucumán
(Pedro Pablo Ramírez Cup 1944).
Colón, who returns to the second division after nine years in the First Division, a historic consecration and a runner-up finish in the Copa Sudamericana, is emerging as one of the contenders for promotion, although to do so he will have to assemble several new pieces.
And not only on the field.
After the defeat against Gimnasia in Rosario that sentenced relegation, there were elections in the club and
Víctor Godano
, the club's former midfielder, took over as president.
One of his first decisions was to choose Iván Delfino
as first team coach
, a man with vast experience in the category who was promoted with Patronato in 2015.
Christian Bernardi will play again for Colón, the club with which he won the 2021 League Cup.
Delfino had to build a squad almost from scratch, since more than two dozen players left the club.
Of those who played regularly in the last stretch of 2023, only
Paolo Goltz
,
Javier Toledo
and
Cristian Vega
remain .
Among the additions, the most important was
Christian Bernardi
, who will return to play after a year of inactivity.
The talented Cordoban had put his career on hold after he was diagnosed with a cardiac arrhythmia.
Along with Bernardi, 16 other footballers arrived, including
Sebastián Prediger
(Tigre) and
Nicolás Leguizamón
(Central Córdoba), two men with good pasts in
Sabalero
, and also players with recent records in First Division such as midfielder
Alexis Sabella
(San Lorenzo), goalkeeper
Manuel Vicentini
(Belgrano) and forward
Axel Rodríguez
(Atlético Tucumán).
Chacarita, one of the great entertainers of the last tournament who ended up leaving empty-handed, will seek revenge in 2024 again led by
Aníbal Biggeri
.
In any case, within hours of the debut against Deportivo Maipú (it will be on Saturday at 5 p.m.), his team can hardly focus fully on the competition, since their attention is divided between the game and the health of their captain,
Luciano Perdomo
, who He has been hospitalized in intensive care since January 22 after suffering a road accident.
Matías Pisano, one of the experienced men with whom Chacarita will try to rebuild itself.
For this new beginning,
Funebrero
will rely on three very experienced men who already know the pressure of wearing the tricolor shirt:
Víctor Figueroa
,
Matías Pisano
and
Rodrigo Salinas
(scorer in the last promotion campaign in the 2016/17 season).
In return, Biggeri will no longer have
Ricardo Blanco
, one of the best players in the category in 2023. The player signed a contract with Ferro, who also repatriated the former San Lorenzo and Gimnasia midfielder
Franco Mussis
, whose last work was in the Italian promotion .
If it comes to experience, there is plenty of the player whose transfer was the loudest in this Primera Nacional transfer market:
Luis Miguel Rodríguez
, who joined Gimnasia de Jujuy.
At 39 years old,
Pulga
will return to the second division after eight years in the elite, in which he represented Atlético Tucumán, Gimnasia, Colón (he was champion of the League Cup) and Central Córdoba.
To accompany the Simoqueño star in the attack, Gimnasia also incorporated
Cristian Menéndez
from Mar del Plata, who recently moved to Atlético Tucumán.
Another customary candidate for promotion,
San Martín de Tucumán
, signed
Pablo Hernández
.
The former midfielder for Independiente, Argentinos Juniors and Celta de Vigo, among others, and champion of the 2016 Copa América with the Chilean national team, had announced his retirement in November after his last experience in
O'Higgins
, but he will return to the ring to defend the club of which he is a fan and whose team will be directed this season by
Translator
Diego Flores
.
Pablo Hernández, a luxury reinforcement for San Martín de Tucumán.
Almirante Brown
, great entertainer of the contest in 2023, changed coaches (Facundo Villalba replaced Darío Franco), dismembered the squad that had fought for promotion (lost the final with Independiente Rivadavia) and reassembled with a base of youth players who arrived from First clubs.
They were joined by
Brian Fernández
, who will try to relaunch his career again.
In the last 17 months, the Santa Fe striker only played 16 minutes with the Morelia shirt in the second division tournament in Mexico.
The transfer of youth players, almost always free of charge and without a purchase option, has been a tool this summer that the First National clubs have used to nourish their squads without making heavy investments and that the League institutions Professionals have used them to film footballers who had no place in their main equipment.
Brian Fernández will play this year at Almirante Brown.
Thus,
several dozen players were downgraded to add minutes
.
For example, Boca loaned
Érik Bodencer
(Atlanta),
Matías Olguín
(San Martín de San Juan),
Tomás Díaz
(Almirante Brown) and
Balthazar Bernardi
(Arsenal);
Independiente, to
David Sayago
(Defensores de Belgrano),
Mauro Zurita
(Nueva Chicago) and
Patricio Ostachuk
(Deportivo Maipú);
Racing, to
Iván Maggi
and
Evelio Cardozo
(both to Nueva Chicago);
San Lorenzo, to
Tomás Silva
(Atlanta);
Vélez, to
Yago De Vito
(Río Cuarto Students);
and Huracán, to
Pablo Oro
( Estudiantes ),
Mauro Villar
( Almirante Brown ) and
Agustín Curruhinca
( Deportivo Morón ).
This is how the first date will be played
Zone A
Friday February 2
17.10:
Agricultural - Board of Trustees
Saturday February 3
17.00:
Chacarita – Deportivo Maipú
17.00:
All Boys - Tristán Suárez
17.30:
Climbing Remedies Workshops - San Miguel
17.30:
Students - Ferro
20.00:
San Martín de Tucumán - Gimnasia de Jujuy
Sunday February 4
17.00:
Arsenal - Güemes
17.00:
Guillermo Brown – Racing de Córdoba
19.00:
San Martín de San Juan - Alvarado
Zone B
Friday February 2
21.30:
Miter - San Telmo
Saturday February 3
17.00:
Deportivo Morón - Brown de Adrogué
19.10:
New Chicago - Almagro
20.00:
Aldosivi - Atlético de Rafaela
21.10:
Colón - United Defenders
Sunday February 4
17.00:
Gymnastics and Shooting - Chaco For Ever
5:00 p.m.:
Admiral Brown - Atlanta
19.30:
Gimnasia de Mendoza - Defensores de Belgrano
20.00:
Río Cuarto Students - Deportivo Madryn
Interzonal
Saturday February 3
19.05:
Quilmes – Temperley