It’s never a dull moment with the Argentina National Team.
Juan Sebastian VERON (current president of Estudiantes de la Plata) is travelling to Spain to hold talks with Jorge SAMPAOLI (coach at Sevilla). The reports are that VERON will try to convince SAMPAOLI to take the Argentina coaching job. There is also a clause in SAMPAOLI’s contract which would allow him to leave Sevilla to go coach the Argentina National Team.
Where do you even begin?
After years (more like decades) of corruption, it’s all caught up to the AFA (Argentine FA). Julio GRONDONA, president and unofficial Godfather of not only the AFA but of FIFA, passed away in 2014. Ever since then, it’s all been downhill for the federation.
The domino’s had been lining up and it was tilting when MESSI posted an Instagram picture calling the AFA “a disaster”. But the first domino fell once MESSI retired from the National Team. That’s when everything slowly started coming out. Here are some of the things we know regarding this massive mess that is Argentine football (aside from the fact that Lionel MESSI has retired and Gerardo MARTINO has stepped down as coach).
There have been arguments between players of the Argentina National Team and the AFA (see Lionel MESSI’s Instagram comment as an idea).
There’s little to no planning going on in Argentina at the moment. The Olympics are coming up next month and Tata MARTINO (or whoever is going to run that team) only has 12 players available at his disposal as clubs (not only in Europe but specifically in Argentina) are not releasing their players for the tournament. Oh and speaking of Tata MARTINO, he had not gotten paid in over 7 months.
The president of the Argentine Olympic Committee came out on Tuesday and said there’s a 50% chance the team won’t even make it to Rio. Furthermore, there’s talk coming out of Uruguay at the moment to see whether or not they would be able to replace Argentina at the Olympics next month should they not be able to make it.
They don’t know how the first division league will be like in Argentina next season or even when it will start.
The federation currently has no president. Every club president appears to be throwing their weight around.
The AFA is currently bankrupt and have no money to even feed their players. Several of them (players) have missed out on joining the U20 team because there was no money to get them to join the team. Furthermore, just like for the Olympics, some clubs in Argentina aren’t even releasing their players to join the U20 team.
FIFA wants to get involved and help fix the mess going on but has threatened to kick the AFA out if the Argentine government (who’s not doing so well either, but that’s a whole other story) gets involved.
This is the general idea of what is happening in Argentine football at the moment. As you can see, it goes way beyond the National Team.
Breaking news out of Argrntina.
Tata MARTINO has stepped down as coach of Argentina.
The president of the Argentina Olympic Committee has today come out and spoken today about the Olympic team.
According to WERTHEIN, there’s a 50% chance that there won’t even be a team to represent Argentina. Here’s what he had to say:
“There’s a 50% chance that Argentina won’t have a male football team. The chances of there being no team are very high if we leave it in the hands of the AFA.”
World Cup winner and current U20 National Team coach Julio OLARTICOECHEA has come out and spoken about the situation in the AFA.
The situation appears to be very bad with him stating that there’s no money to even feed the players. Here’s what he had to say:
“The leaders say that the situation at the AFA is unfortunate, but imagine the one’s there day to day. River and Boca are not allowing players to go to the U20 team for political reasons. At the AFA, we’re two people working for 30 kids.”
“At the AFA headquarters, there’s no money to feed the kids. The reality of it all is sad. There are 9 players here who can’t come (to U20 team) because there’s no money. The reality of it all is sad.”
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