Racing Fan Day: Why is it celebrated every March 7th?

“If we fill our pitch and don’t play / Defend our HQ from the auction / If ours is a different fan base…”

“Lest we forget” is called (no less) this song by Los Rodríguez that fans of La Academia have adapted and turned into an anthem. The fact is that the lyrics of this song seem to sum everything up and explain that question that today appears as the number 1 trend on Google Trends: Why is Racing Fan Day celebrated on March 7?.

On a day like today, but in 1999, in the midst of the bankruptcy process led by Daniel Lalín, a court order prevented Racing from showing up to play for the local tournament, yet 30,000 fans went to the Cilindro de Avellaneda as if their team were playing and they fleshed out the situation. Here, the chronology.

“The Civil Racing Association has ceased to exist”

In March 1999, Racing’s present was very different from what it is now. At the moment, chaos and uncertainty noted the Academy: “Racing Civil Association ceased to exist“, ensured the trustee Liliana Ripoll on March 4 of that year. Almost simultaneously, at the Avellaneda headquarters, a drum hit the face of Daniel Lalín, former president of the club, who had taken to the streets to try to clarify what was happening.

The problem, which began months ago, had intensified in the last few hours: the Appellate Chamber of La Plata had ordered the closure and liquidation of the club’s assets over a four-month period. The decision had been made following a request from former trustee Francisco Pérez Díaz, who had requested the closure of the institution and received a favorable judgment from the House in relation to its claim for a debt of 231 thousand pesos With interest.

The claim, the debt and the bankruptcy

“My client is not responsible for that racing The shutter has been lowered. The culprits had to be found among the executives who ran the club, because it was Lalín and not someone else who filed for bankruptcy. It becomes clear that the executioners are not those who justly claim their due“, commented Héctor Méndez, lawyer of Pérez Díaz.

The truth is that in addition to this statement, Racing’s backpack was already heavy: in 1998, a year before all thisits debt already amounted to 58 million pesos/dollarsthen on July 10th Lalín had filed for bankruptcy and Judge Daniel Gorostegui had decreed it. The recognized amount of the debt: 34 million pesoscorresponding to about 600 creditors.

The passion of the fans

In the midst of all this, the soccer: that Sunday, March 7, racing (directed at that time by the duo Gustavo Costas-Humberto Maschio and with figures such as Fernando Quiroz, Pablo Michelini, Claudio Ubeda and Ángel Morales) had to show up to play his match against Cordoba workshops, in the Cylinder and for the first round of the Closing Tournament. But justice did not allow it and I had decided to postpone the duel for later.

The fans didn’t doubt it: despite the suspension of the match, they decided to go to the stadium. Then, the unexpected. “Thirty thousand people took to the field to keep the club from closing”, remember the chronicle of clarion of that March 7, 1999. The ball would not play, it was known in advance. All those hearts painted in celestial and white matter did little.

In the midst of popular support, five players from the squad (Quiroz, Morales, Jorge Reinoso, Sergio Zanetti and Michelini) entered the field to acknowledge that support. There, on the lawn of the Cylinder, present and past: Another of those who came to fight for Racing was Juan Carlos Cardenasthe Chango, that of that historic goal against Celtic in the 1967 Intercontinental Cup final.

The rest, of course, is history. Racing was finally allowed to enter the tournament and after a nearly decade-long struggle, in December 2008, managed to revoke the bankruptcy and became a partner again.

For all this, every March 7 a part of Avellaneda puffs out its chest and celebrates the Racing fan day.