There was a Nacional B final that was played very close to the start of the World Cup (the game ended just 14 hours before the opening party began in Qatar) and it went almost unnoticed, except for those interested: Instituto de Córdoba – historical soccer club Argentinian, who knew how to give birth to players like Ardiles, Kempes and Dybala- drew 1-1 with Estudiantes de Buenos Aires and managed to return to the First Division.
There was also a controversial arbitration -Instituto turned his goal into clear offside and the referee kicked out two players and the coach from the visitors- and a formal complaint from the losers.
In an official statement, Estudiantes de Buenos Aires expressed: “This arbitration revealed the naturalization of facts that undermine the spirit of the sport.”
The referee was Fernando Espinoza, the same one who tilted the field in favor of Boca in that anticipated final with Atlético de Tucumán, ignoring an elbow from Zambrano that should have been a red card and a penalty for the Tucumans.
So far, football.
But it appears anything else behind the rise of Institute, helped by a strange arbitration in a category where there is no VAR.
Hours after the game, the president of the Institute, Juan Manuel Cavagliatto, left in a private jet for Qatar, traveling with other leaders close to the president of the AFA, Claudio “Chiqui” Tapia, such as the president of Defensores de Belgrano, Marcelo Achile.
Cavagliatto pays public homage to Tapia -he has a gigantography of the president of the AFA in one of the club’s changing rooms- and is the exact link for Hugo and Pablo Moyano return to the First Division after his management failure at Independiente, which they left with a debt of 6,600 million pesos.
Reason has a name, nickname and surname: Eladio “Titan” Luján, general secretary of the Truckers union in Córdoba, strong man of the Moyano in the province and vice president of Cavagliatto in Institute.
Luján was exalted in the management of the club three months ago, just when Hugo Moyano was lowering his candidacy for the Independiente elections, driven by a clamor from the members that ended in incidents.
In less than a week -between July 28 and August 2- the Moyano they got off Independiente and went up to Institute through a man from his kidney.
The brotherhood of the guild and the Alta Córdoba club is now such that Camioneros Córdoba, a team that plays in the province’s league, is going to play at home in the Institute.
And agreements are being analyzed so that Truckers members can start using the club’s services, facilities and properties.
Cavagliatto, the president friend of Tapia, has a relationship with the union from the other side of the counter: he owns Sucre Transportationone of the largest transport companies in Córdoba.
Second-line leaders of Argentine soccer assure that Cavagliatto would join the girl table of Tapia’s decisions, where his judicial operator, Pablo Toviggino, and Achile himself, president of Nacional B and who handed over the cup to the Institute, are active.
It will be a Truckers leg in a strategic place for monitor closely any move by the new Independiente -now directed by the PRO- against the recent leadership of the Moyano, which could include some debt with the AFA not documented.
The all-powerful head of the AFA, Julio Grondona, had a motto to drive: Everything happens.
Serrat completes the sentence these days in Buenos Aires, singing those verses by Antonio Machado: Everything happens… and everything remains
