River and Boca will face each other this Sunday at the summit of the most passionate weekend in Argentine football, the so-called "date of the classics", a day that includes local duels such as Independiente-Racing or Newell's-Central.
However, behind the crowds and the power cultivated by world champion football in Qatar 2022, the bases of Argentine sport are already feeling the dismantling of the State by the Government of Javier Milei.
The far-right president's chainsaw, which affects sectors as diverse as health, science, transportation or cinema - among many others - also began to affect the preparation of athletes, disciples not only of Lionel Messi and Diego Maradona but also of champions of other disciplines such as Juan Manuel Fangio, Emanuel Ginóbili, Guillermo Vilas, Carlos Monzón or Gabriela Sabatini.
Between indifference and adjustment, the beginning of the Milei administration in sports is characterized by acephalous charges, suspended tournaments, tours in danger, frozen budgets in the midst of the highest inflation in the world, pulverized scholarships, athletes without competitions who launch raffles to cover expenses, some complaints from active or retired athletes and silence from the majority, even from leaders, in the face of the imminent Olympic Games.
Although the cuts will also affect representatives in Paris 2024, the black sword of defunding will fall especially on non-Olympic athletes.
Soccer goalkeeper in the San Lorenzo and Chacarita training divisions, the only interest that Milei showed in sports under his presidency responds to market issues: in the mega decree he signed in December he ordered the incorporation of Sports Joint Stock Companies (SAD). to the soccer championships, a measure stopped at least temporarily by a precautionary ruling by Justice.
The rest is a desert.
While the Sports Secretariat, the state organization that promotes social sports, remained headless and the Government does not move to appoint a manager, the Argentine Olympic Committee (COA) seems to have been left in a position of uncomfortable closeness with Milei: its honorary president , Gerardo Werthein, was appointed as the new Argentine ambassador to the United States, an appointment still pending approval.
It is true that the presidency of Alberto Fernández from 2019 to 2023 was not a panacea for Argentine sports either.
There was no shortage of controversies – athletes traveled to the Guayaquil 2021 South American Athletics Championship thanks to the collection of an
influencer
– nor unfavorable balances: the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games meant the lowest harvest of medals in 29 years and the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games marked a drastic reduction of golds from 33 to 17. But if the State's sports policy was already in crisis, particularly since Mauricio Macri eliminated autarky for its financing in 2017, Milei finished throwing salt at it.
70 days after his inauguration, some differences are already marked.
This Wednesday, the Argentine Athletics Confederation (CADA) issued a statement that some specialists interpret as “the night for national athletics,” a diagnosis that can be extended to other sports.
Specifically, CADA reported that the budget of the National High Performance Entity (Enard, an organization composed of the COA and the now headless Sports Secretariat, which distributes scholarships among the best athletes in the country) will be the same as in 2023, “with the considerable decrease that it means.”
Although Argentina was the country with the highest inflation in the world last year, with 211%, plus another 20% registered in the first month of 2024, its sport will have a similar game to that of 2023.
The Enard scholarships for athletes qualified for Paris 2024 range from 170,000 to 390,000 pesos, that is, from 200 to 450 dollars in the official price, while those preparing for the 2027 Pan American Games receive from 156,000 to 218,000 pesos.
Some of these figures are below the poverty line: in Buenos Aires you need 194,000 pesos to not be considered poor.
The financing of high-performance Argentine athletes once again depended on State funds – described by Milei as “the bases of all the problems” – since Macri removed from Enard a law that favored him with 1% of the revenue. of mobile phone rates.
“Today the money that athletes receive is very little, the scholarships are a pittance.
They should be updated in proportion to the devaluation of the peso against the dollar because many athletes cover their expenses abroad,” says Rodolfo Paverini, president of the Argentine Sports Confederation (CAD), an entity that brings together federations of different disciplines.
Victoria Granatto, field hockey player and silver medalist in Tokyo 2020 – today away from the national team – launched a similar lament: “The first consequences of sport are visible: the same budget as in 2023 but with devaluation and inflation.”
The new scenario leaves many athletes without activity.
“In December they told us that, due to lack of funding, we would not be able to compete in any tournaments abroad during the year,” says Iván Nikilajuk, a member of the Argentine archery team.
“My colleagues and I took out raffles to travel to the South American Championship in Brazil, in March, and for the Pan American Championship in Colombia, in April, but the collection is not going well and we will not be able to participate.
We have just started 2024 and we are already left with nothing,” adds the triple South American champion.
Rower Ariel Suárez, triple Pan American champion, left behind his initial enthusiasm for Milei's triumph and became a spokesperson against his inaction in the sport.
“The only thing that interests them are the Sports Limited Companies and behind that there is a world of athletes that is being left aside.
The sport is orphaned, it doesn't have a path, we are in a mess," complained Suárez, who also said that he is "begging for accommodation" with well-known clubs in Brazil so that the Argentine rowing team can participate in the South American Championship in Rio de Janeiro. in March.
In turn, some tournaments that were to be held in Argentina have already been cancelled, such as the fencing World Cup that was scheduled in Buenos Aires for March.
“In the current economic situation, and taking into account that neither Enard nor the Sports Secretariat have allocated a budget, we have found it necessary to cancel the organization.
We regret having to cancel this event that we have organized since 1995,” published the local Federation.
A good harvest of medals in Paris 2024 will depend almost exclusively on the team sports teams, Argentine pride based on thousands of neighborhood clubs, a formidable breeding ground for soccer players and athletes from other disciplines.
But the institutions are also alert to Milei's chainsaw: they fear that gas and electricity subsidies will be taken away.
Still world champion in soccer, and with an unbreakable history and tradition, Argentine sport is entering a stage of abandonment and darkness.
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