In January 2023 the Argentina Super Cup in the capital of the United Arab Emirates. The trophy has one million dollar prize and will face this season’s Professional League champion in one match (Boca Juniors) and the Argentine Cup champion (Patronage) or the leader of the annual table (Racing).
Incredibly, it is not yet defined which teams will play the decisive match in Abu Dhabi. “The leaders have decided to study the two options of the teams that will play that match in the Middle East,” assured the Professional League through an official statement. We will have to wait.
It presupposes the agreement between the parent company of national football and the Sports Council of the eastern country four editions of the trophy (2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026) and despite being announced a few days ago via the Twitter account of Abu Dhabi Sports CouncilRelations between the two organizations began several years ago. And one person was fundamental in this union: Diego Maradona.
The Argentine star was decisive for this trophy to be played in the country of the Emirates. And the Argentine journalist Rashid Ali Garciawho collaborated with Fluff in the United Arab Emirates, he explained the behind the scenes of this story on his Twitter account.
“Diego signs his contract with Fujairah (2017), at his side and among the intermediaries he is Muhammad Nagar, an Egyptian, his translator and right-hand man for the past 10 years in the United Arab Emirates. And what does this have to do with anything? A key week begins. That contract with Fujairah would mark the end of the 10’s stay in the Emirates “, explains the Argentine.
And he adds: “Four days later there is a fundamental landing for this story. The table of the AFA at Diego’s table in Dubai. The faces are familiar: Daniele Angeli Y Claudio Tapia on one side, Nicola Russo Y Vittorio Bianco of the other. Promises arise for Maradona that would never be kept. But that’s not the only thing that comes up. “
“After that meal there is a meeting and a subsequent joint trip to Bahrain. The entourage of the Alfa, including Toviggino, meets the aforementioned Mohamed and Bader Harib, another ’roundabout’ of Diego in looking for opportunities. And they go to find, “he adds.
The author of the book Thanks to D10S explains the relationships born after that meeting: “With Morla in Baires, Naggar and Harib had free rein to offer themselves as links and plot strategies with AFA. The subsequent arrival of the lawyer in Dubai put away all this cold. But the relationship had begun and would have ended after Diego’s death. “
“Now without Diego, but even if it was he, as always, who opened all the doors, Naggar goes to Buenos Aires and meets the AFA again, but this time there was someone else. The well-known entrepreneur Guillermo Tofoni, who had already started a new business with AFA. Another of many “.
“The AFA-FTI Academy was already born, a project of football schools in the United Arab Emirates, and the idea of expanding, with the ‘Argentine’ style and cutting-edge technology. In Creole: a franchise business in the world which can be bought and exploded with the image of the Argentine national team “.
“Now it is obvious to say that Harib and Naggar are the administrators of the activity in the United Arab Emirates, which already has 3 schools installed. The image is not only of the current national team, Diego is also, as Harib and Naggar say in the video, the flag of the project. It all started during that visit “, expresses the Argentine journalist.
Rashid Ali García is aware that the Argentine trophy that will be played on Emirati soil from January next year was the idea of two men who walked alongside Diego: “The birth of the Argentine Super Cup in Abu Dhabi is an idea original, and you guess it, from Naggar, who is also an employee of the Argentine embassy in the Emirates, and Harib, who is also an employee of the Dubai Sports Council “.
“They provided the contacts as intermediaries for the agreement to be finalized in June of this year between the Abu Dhabi Sports Council through its boss, Aref Al Awani -photo- and the AFA. We played the Super Cup in Abu Dhabi “.
Rashid also explains why the Template You can miss the chance to play this trophy on Arab soil. “The agreement is for four editions, from 2023 to 2026 and, what brought us here, the contract does NOT specify which champions should play it. This gives Tapia the freedom to generate a new format and not send Patronato as the Argentine Cup champion. “
“It goes without saying that the Abu Dhabi Sports Council will see with better eyes that 2 big Argentine teams will arrive – thanks to the obvious increased visibility – and will give AFA the freedom to create the format it sees fit. After all, what things are business and the ball is the excuse “, concludes the Argentine journalist.
Source: Clarin
