A small crowd of 1,500 members of Estudiantes de La Plata gathered in an assembly at their stadium on Saturday.
They were, above all, expectant.
They were summoned by the new beginning of Little Witch Verón as president. At 49 years old, the former player began his third term at the club since 2014.
But they were also brought together by the rumor, which turned into curiosity, that
Verón would announce the arrival of foreign investors to the club right there
. A step in the direction of SAD (Sports Public Limited Companies).
The former footballer himself had suggested it with a publication on Instagram:
“Is it going to be easy? If it were, it wouldn't be a leap, it would be one more step. It is going to be challenging to build something new on what already works, to encourage us to challenge ourselves…,”
he published.
Verón quickly put a stop to the collective anxiety (
“Sorry if you thought I was going to make an announcement”
), but set a specific course:
“I think our house was too small for us. The SAD topic is fashionable, I talked about something mixed. Let's not set limits. Without preconceptions.”
The partners applauded.
The scene contains news. The first is the applause for a leader who raises the need to rethink the club's legal format. That avoids the deceptive simplicity of
“the club belongs to the members.”
And that challenges us to overcome preconceptions. Until not long ago that speech only received rejections.
The second is that it happens in
one of the most important clubs in our football
, legitimizing a debate and a direction that is now impossible to postpone.
Kun Agüero, from another place but supported by his enormous popularity, also says it. He did it over the weekend in one of his Twitch broadcasts:
“It could empower Argentine clubs that are privatized. That it is not mandatory. Let the partners decide
. ”
His definition was reposted on X by Milei.
Verón has a consensus in Estudiantes
that is almost unrepeatable by other leaders in other clubs
. The partners trust based on their previous efforts. But this condition also provides a fact:
sometimes distrust or opposition to a model has to do with who carries it out.
Corruption lives in men, not in organizational schemes.
A point is necessary here. Due to a political issue, the Little Witch decided to directly propose a Sports Joint Stock Company.
She clarified that it is something mixed
. A few days before, meeting with fans, she had pointed to
German clubs as the model to emulate.
And what is the German model like? Known as 50+1, its clubs are structured with
a share distribution of 51% for members and 49% for investors (something like the golden share in the hands of members)
. Middle path, in Argentina it would mean a revolution.
Today, the articles of the presidential decree that enable the transformation of civil societies into SAD are stopped by a judicial decision tailored to the wishes of Chiqui Tapia and those who defend
a system without economic control and with bankrupt clubs, and discredited organizationally. .
But it is just an opportunistic brake. The transformation is no longer a bad word and is even applauded by a representative portion of the partners. It will take time and require nuance. But if the “head” changed, the rest seems a matter of time.