On a rainy day in Buenos Aires, Juan Román Riquelme was elected president of Club Atlético Boca Juniors in the elections held on Sunday.
The former player was the vice president of the institution between 2019 and 2023 and the president in fact, making the most important decisions. The elections in the most popular soccer club in Argentina were held after weeks of judicial disputes between the two lists that were presented, that of Riquelme together with Jorge Amor Ameal (current president), and that of Andrés Ibarra together with Mauricio Macri ( candidate for vice president), former president of the club between 1996 and 2008 and first Argentine president between 2015 and 2019.
Riquelme prevailed at the close of this office with 64.4% of the votes compared to Ibarra’s 35.3% with 126 of the tables counted out of a total of 285.
Javier Milei, president of Argentina in office since December 10, voted at one of the tables that were set up on the La Bombonera playing field. Milei is member 76,296 and cast his vote at table 19.
Congratulations to the President with the most votes in the history of Argentine football pic.twitter.com/BHMbjjqXar
— Boca Juniors (@BocaJrsOficial) December 18, 2023
43,367 members exercised their right to vote. 46% of the electoral roll voted. This was the election with the most voters in a sports club in Argentina. It was the second largest vote in the history of a sports institution in the world after the one in 2010 at FC Barcelona where 57,088 people voted.
Ibarra publicly acknowledged defeat. “Everything we have done has been to defend the partner,” said the candidate to lead the entity. “Boca is above everything and everyone. Boca needs to recover peace and unity.”
The postponement of the elections had occurred due to the inclusion of 13,000 new members, a fact that the opposition denounced as illegitimate. Finally, and after a court ruling, these members of the Boca club were able to vote.
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Martín Palermo, a former key striker in Boca’s successful cycle in past decades, cast his vote and was openly in favor of Macri. For years, Palermo and Riquelme have not had a good relationship.
Boca lost the Copa Libertadores de América final to Fluminense at the Maracaná stadium in November. In a year without titles, he failed to qualify for the 2024 version of the highest South American competition. A championship that they have not achieved since 2007, that time with Riquelme on the court.
The Xeneizes will compete in the Copa Sudamericana next year, a competition they won in 2004 and 2005.
The followers of Juan Román Riquelme had mobilized in thousands to La Bombonera on December 3 to demonstrate against the non-holding of the elections on that date.
AP
The entry Riquelme triumphs in the Boca Juniors elections was first published in Líder en Deportes.
2023-12-18 16:12:56
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