The return of Argentine football is very good news. It makes the footballing country happy, almost all of us are. It is the first thing to say, but not the only thing. It may not even be the most important thing. Because joy cannot hide that the return to the fields after 227 days is not an example of successful work.
Unlike, is the testimony of the lack of management of a government and the passivity of leaders (Verón and Gallardo were the only critical voices) that in the face of the pandemic they sat waiting in quarantine, who knows what a miracle that would pave them a way forward. It is enough to look at the football world to see it.
In the United States, football returned on July 8, the European Champions League on August 7, the Copa Libertadores on September 15, and the leagues of Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile, Colombia and Peru, the most important in South America. , between the end of July and the beginning of September.
Why will the Argentine tournament do it on October 30, almost two months later? What justified this delay?
That the draw for the new championship took place a few hours after the record of positive cases of coronavirus (17,096) was announced shows that the objective conditions are no better than a month or two ago. And it confirms that the leaders were awake and the Government acted cornered both by the evidence of the Libertadores matches, played on the same fields that were closed for the local tournament. Impossible to explain.
As it is, any attempt to sell a success is a story in a vacuum. The real is something else. It is enough to ask the leaders of San Martín de Tucumán, a team that the quarantine found a leader of the First National and a candidate for promotion, and today they do not know what the conditions will be when they resume the competition, but they had to dismantle their squad, resigning dreams and money.
And what do the leaders say? Claudio Tapia, president of the AFA, assured yesterday, before the fixture draw: “Together we have worked a lot to get to this moment”. Marcelo Tinelli, president of the Professional League, added that a job was done “sparkly” and that “We have been examples for all”. It is worth asking, example of what and for whom? What leadership did football set that served as a model for other activities?
But the one who surprised even more with his definition was the Minister of Tourism and Sports, Matías Lammens, who on the premises of the AFA admitted: “It is true that we have to start thinking about the agenda for the reactivation of Argentina.”
It is striking that in the year in which a 12% drop in the economy is projected, with record unemployment and high inflation, and after 210 days of quarantine, a Minister of the Nation says: “We have to start thinking …”. A confession of parties …
To all this, 20 of the 24 clubs voted to break the contract that the AFA had with the Fox network until 2027. Boca, River and Estudiantes did not adhere, and the two greats criticized a determination that could lead to a trial with a huge economic loss. The true management of our football. Another brilliant job.
