The vehemence that Daniel Walkway He showed it on the pitch, he replicated it on his desk in his role as manager. After ending his playing career in River and having become technical director, years later he was chosen by the members to preside over the club. The experience did not end in the best way and overlooks a theory that ensures that the decline of Núñez’s club was due to a heated brawl between the Kaiser and the then president of the Argentine Football Federation (AFA), Giulio Grondona.

The trigger was the referee for a Super classic. The experienced Héctor Baldassi was originally going to be in charge of the game, but there was a change the afternoon before the game. “Baldassi is injured, he’s staying in Córdoba. Don’t worry, Patricio Lousteau, Pichi’s son, is going there,” Grondona told Passarella on the phone. The Kaiser insisted that the proposed referee’s youth was not adequate for a match of this magnitude, which was overstated by the meager average River had.

However, the decision has been made. Passarella communicated the change to the coach Juan Jose Lopez and the next day, the game developed the way River’s president had a feeling. He felt that the referee’s performance had hurt his team and believed that, beyond goalkeeper Juan Pablo Carrizo’s mistake in Boca’s first goal and Martín Palermo’s header in the second, Loustau was responsible for the defeat. And whoever appointed him, even more responsible.

“Two days later he had a meeting with the River table and he said: I’m going to the AFA. No one knew what he was going to do and he went to Viamonte, where the Executive Committee was meeting,” journalist Marcelo recalled to Radio Cooperativa Nasarala, the club’s press officer at the time.

“He kicked in the door to the third floor where they were meeting and slammed into Grondona, who he held responsible for the arbitration that he claimed hurt River,” said Nasarala, who detailed a passage in which another leader, Germán Lerche de Colón, tried to stop him and the world champion in 78 and 86 cut him short: “You and all of you shut your mouth you’ve never touched a soccer ball”. After the shouting, she left the building, but repeated to reporters covering the daily life of the AFA what he had said during the meeting.

After the episode, River did not win again in the tournament and didn’t add enough points to avoid putting the category into play. The most illustrious also recall that in this section of the race Millo was not so much damaged but rather favored by Olympus of Bahia Blancawho unexpectedly obtained the points necessary to maintain the category by avoiding the promotion.

For this reason the myth indicates that the fight against Grondona was the decisive factor in the relegation, consumed in promotion against Belgrano. Shortly after his return to the Monumental to be honored by winning the world champion title as a footballer, he was interviewed by TyC Sportwhere they wanted to know if he considered the president of the AFA to be the mentor of the lineage.

“Witnesses of that meeting say you said to Grondona: ‘You have to go, time has devoured you’. Is it true and do you suspect that’s why the river fell?”, asked the journalist Hugo Balassone.

“I said that sentence, but I don’t have those suspicions. Why should I suspect it?”, he said without mentioning Grondona, but alluding to him. “I don’t want to talk about the leadership issue, because whoever should talk isn’t there”.

The streak after the Superclásico

There were five dates left to play. Luck was not chosen for River, even if his lack of effectiveness ended up dooming him. Of the 15 points up for grabs, the millionaire added four. He won none of the engagements and lost the last one.

After that superclassic, River drew four in a row: 1-1 with San Lorenzo, goalless against Olimpo, one with Colón and then with Estudiantes. The last one fell 1-2 against Lanús, at the Monumental.

The hypothesis according to which River’s relegation would be due to Passarella’s brawl with Grondona will continue to be repeated in the world of football. The loss of the category is the only tangible thing. “The only weight I have is that we went downhill with River. This story is long. He’s getting used to living with the weight on top. I’m still getting used to it. I know I wasn’t the culprit,” he concluded. . the Kaiser in the TyC interview.