Player strike is latest block to resumption of Argentine league

By Samindra Kunti

March 6 – This weekend’s matches in Argentina’s top three divisions were all postponed following a players’s strike over salaries. With professional football on hold, the institutional crisis in Argentinean football is deepening.

The Argentine top flight should have kicked off on February 5 when the domestic summer break was due to end, but the on-going dispute between the Argentinean FA (AFA) and the players union the league matches have postponed the league start.

On Friday, AFA decided to postpone two matches, Rosario Central v Godoy Cruz, in the city of Rosario, and San Lorenzo v Belgrano, in the capital Buenos Aires. The talks between AFA and the players union collapsed and, as a result, all of the weekend’s professional matches, right down to the third division, were postponed.

Argentine president Mauricio Macri’s government had tried to avoid a crisis by delivering a $22 million payment in compensation for the cancellation of an old broadcasting contract. That money should have gone a long way to stabilise the financial situation of the clubs and allow the league to resume, but the players union is adamant that the money is not enough.

The league has proposals for broadcasting rights on the table from media conglomerates Fox/Turner, ESPN and MediaPro.

The crisis in Argentine football comes from the top down, following AFA’s long-time disintegration. AFA organised presidential elections after Julio Grondona’s death in 2014, but the vote was split, leaving the governing body rudderless. The government stepped in with the Futbol para Todos (football for all) programme, funding the league through broadcasting rights.

Last July, FIFA ordered a normalisation committee, headed by Armando Perez, to run the AFA and get the organisation back on track. But that move has yielded little results so far. A lack of money and all the political intrigues have only aggravated the crisis in Argentinean football.

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