Javier Milei announced that clubs will be able to become joint-stock companies: what it means and what the AFA statute says

After weeks of speculation on the issue, Pres Javier Milei confirmed on Wednesday that as part of a series of measures which mean, in his words, “the foundations for the reconstruction of Argentina”will be the possibility of clubs becoming sports limited liability companies (SAD). The announcement was made based on a decree of necessity and urgency and is an old wish of former president Mauricio Macri.

What does it mean? At #27 on her list, Milei stated: “Amendment of the Companies Act so that football clubs can become public limited companies if they wish to do so”. Then, in the DNU, this was confirmed Changes were made to 13 articles and an addition to the Sports Law (20,655).

This last clarification is one of the keys to understanding the issue, because it is not an obligation but rather an authorization for the clubs to have a new legal organization, in which The owners are shareholders and investors, not members as in non-profit organizations.. For this reason, many of those who demonstrated against SAD repeat it “the club belongs to the members”.

There is a substantial point beyond this announcement by Milei: the statute of the AFA, the Constitution of Argentine football, specifically defines a club as a “civil association having legal personality pursuant to the provisions of the Civil and Commercial Code of the Nation, Book I, Title II, Chapter 2, and the supervisory authority of the respective jurisdiction which has been admitted by the Assembly as a member of the AFA or a recognized league with at least one team participating in a competition”.

The first to react to the presidential announcement was Juan Pablo Lighthousepresident of the Patagonian Football League and secretary of the Federal Council of the AFA – which brings together the entire interior of the country -, he left a position that marks the refusal that will take football is against.

“That the ‘prerogative’ of transforming into SA belongs only to ‘football clubs’, and are not linked to civil associations in general, besides being neither necessary nor urgent, constitutes an unequivocal interference in the internal affairs of the AFA ( banned by FIFA and CONMEBOL). Be careful”he wrote on his official account on the social network X (formerly Twitter).

In this way, a debate will reopen within the Argentine Football Federation (AFA) that, at least the majority, had not planned to discuss: Just a month ago, most of the clubs and leagues across the country that make up this entity participated in a campaign on social networks against sports joint-stock companies..

This will be the third time that the AFA is faced with the dilemma of bringing joint stock companies into its structure to coexist with non-profit civil associations. The first was in 1998 when the then president of Boca Maurizio Macri He managed to get it voted on in the AFA Assembly. The setback was notable, since there was only one favorable vote, his.

The second, in 2016, when FIFA and the Normalization Committee chaired by Armando Pérez intervened in the AFA, together with Carolina Cristinziano (now vice-president of Rosario Central), Pablo Toviggino (now Treasurer of the AFA) and Javier Medín (before and in today, Macri’s man), promoted its introduction – albeit with dissent – and it was not discussed in the Assembly.

The third is the current one, which began with a rejection campaign by the clubs on the eve of the ballot, when a video went viral in which the then candidate Milei indicated his preference for the SAD. “I like the English model (that of joint-stock companies), clearly. They’re not doing badly, eh…”has indicated.

The response was a post on Twitter by Toviggino: “Let each Argentine football club demonstrate in defense of their institutions. NO TO SAD! No to the privatization of football”. The leader himself has expressed his public support for Sergio Massa’s candidacy several times and has sparked an avalanche of responses from other leaders, except Cordoba laboratories, Defense and JusticeAND Godoy Cruz from Mendoza.

The Cordoba club He was the only one who did not hide his interest in the foundation of the SAD and its president Andrés Fassi he has declared: “Today those who are starting to move the market are no longer the institutions, but the business groups. Manchester City has done it with an extraordinary vision”.

Florencio Varela’s is a hybrid: a civil association managed de facto with a sui generis relationship with the representation of the players Cristiano Bragarnik which also had an influence on the Mendoza Tomb. It remains to be seen, with the publication of the DNU in the Official Journal, the true scope and how many clubs are behind the paradigm that for the first time seems to be closer to seriously entering Argentine football.

The other possible discussion is to what extent the inclusion of SAD in Argentine football is relevant “the foundations for the reconstruction of Argentina”.

What are the different SAD models used around the world?

Javier Milei’s announcement does not imply that Sports Joint Stock Companies will definitively arrive in Argentine football and that Civil Associations will be eliminated, but rather that these can coexist in a mixed mode as happens in Spain, France AND Germany. There, members vote, but elected leaders use foreign capital for management.

Italymeanwhile, it allows joint-stock companies or limited liability companies, while in England most clubs are full of SAD.

In the Latin American context, following the economic and patrimonial crisis of the clubs, the transformation into the different forms that the SAD can take occurred in kilos, Peru AND Colombia. And now Argentina could join.