The scenario is set: it is no longer a philosophical question or the foundations proposed by the Argentine Football Association (AFA), which brings together more than 3,500 clubs between direct and indirect affiliations, through leagues throughout the country. In the battery of Necessity and Urgency Decrees (BOTTOM) presented by the President of the Nation Javier Mileythe possibility of creating Sports Joint Stock Companies was enabled (SAD).
It is the same DNU that modifies 13 articles of the Sports Law and adds one, in addition to granting the AFA – strictly speaking, all sports associations, regardless of the discipline they practice – a period of one year to adapt its statutes and open the door to the SAD, which today expressly speak of non-profit civil associations.
25 years after the first attempt to promote the entry of the SAD into the AFA, for the first time the entity is forced for reasons beyond its structure to modify its traditional position, since the DNU is surgical: the modifications made make it difficult for the association the possibility of rejecting them automaticallysince in the articles that he previously relied on to shield himself from them, now enables them.
It is the third addendum to article 19 included in the DNU that did not modify an existing article, but rather included a central concept: “No right of a sports organization may be prevented, hindered, deprived or undermined, including its right of affiliation to a confederation, federation, association, league or union, based on its legal form, if it is recognized in this law and complementary rules.”
This upcoming battle will involve a legal path, but also a political one, under the gaze of the FIFA y Conmebolthe two organizational spheres to which it belongs and that contemplate sanctions for those associations that come into conflict with their States or, as in this case, interfere through a Government to articulate the functioning of football, totally or partially.
The DNU includes in its article 345 a transitional clause that marked the field for the AFA, without even mentioning it. “Sports associations, federations and confederations will have one year, counted from the regulations herein, to modify their statutes in order to adapt to the terms provided for therein, which must be applied without prejudice to compliance with pre-existing mandates. ”indicates the last point of the decree that modifies the Sports Law.
In general terms, this Law, 20,655replaced the term “civil sports associations” by “sports organizations” in different articles, including article 16 that no longer restricts state subsidies to AFA or neighborhood clubs: those that convert to public limited companies, They will also be able to access money from the National Sports Agency or extraordinary by other State resources.
In this way, the SAD will be integrated into the Institutional System of Sports and Physical Activity which, among other issues, grants scholarships to athletes and they will also enjoy the benefits until now reserved for non-profit civil associations, which grants reductions of between 25 and 100 percent of employer contributions.
Why is the national government interested in this reform that enables the privatization of football and included it in the DNU battery under the “bases for the reconstruction of Argentina”? There is no answer, but there are foundations from Milei himself in an interview given to Radio Rivadavia on Thursday morning, following Wednesday night’s announcements.
“(The clubs) are not going to be privatized, we give the option of expanding the regime of possible companies, it is optional. If you want to continue having the club like now, you can have it like now. But you have ‘club A’ and ‘club B’: ‘A’ historically did great and ‘B’ with fewer resources decides to enter a capitalist format, they inject money and ‘club B’ now always wins and Club ‘A’, let’s say, with the logic of poverty, is going to start to do poorly, and what are the people going to want? May we be capitalists”, the president analyzed.
“It’s a way for people to realize how valuable capitalism is. Perhaps what opposes it are those who want to maintain this level of misery because, perhaps, they are running their own businesses. What is the problem with expanding the options menu? Does freedom bother you that much?was expanded on Jonatan Viale’s radio space.
The idea that civil societies, the clubs as they are known, associated with spurious issues, is one of the central arguments, along with the lack of capacity or unprofessionalism of those who run the entities. The argument is so recurrent that the AFA itself has a position on the matter.
“There are many management models in the world: Sports Joint Stock Companies, mixed systems, Civil Associations. And bad management, there is in all those models. No one can guarantee that a SAD is synonymous with good management and that, on the other hand, a civil association is bad”indicates the AFA in its 2022 Governance and Administration report.
In the same report, the association reports on the structure of controls that exist over civil associations, both internally – the club members – or externally: the State and other third parties to the entity, such as the General Inspection of Justice. (IGJ), which is permanently in charge of “legality control” of the clubs as they are currently known.
The AFA has not yet offered a statement on the matter nor has any of the important leaders referred to the news that came by decree. The president of Workshops, Andres Fassi, who is also the owner of Juárez FC in Mexico and one of the founders of Grupo Pachuca, in the same country and whose objective is to buy a club in Spain. Behind him and protected by the new DNU, will rise the new bastion that will give rise to the next leadership battle of Argentine football. Or not.