Milei enables joint-stock companies and the AFA put in check by an article of the DNU: what is the deadline given by the Government

The scenario is done: it is no longer a philosophical question or the foundations proposed by the Argentine Football Federation (AFA), which brings together more than 3,500 clubs between direct and indirect affiliations, through championships throughout the national territory. In the series of Decrees of Necessity and Urgency (DNU) presented by the President of the Nation Javier Mileithe possibility of creating sports joint-stock companies has been enabled (SAD).

It is the same DNU that modifies 13 articles of Sports law and adds one, in addition to recognizing the AFA – strictly speaking, to all sports associations, regardless of the discipline practiced – a period of one year to adapt its statutes and open the door to SAD, which today expressly speaks of non-profit civil associations.

25 years after the first attempt to favor the entry of the SAD into the AFA, for the first time the body is forced, for reasons unrelated to its structure, to modify its traditional position, being the DNU surgical: the changes made make association and the possibility of rejecting them are difficult automaticallysince in the articles on which he previously relied to protect himself from them, now enable them.

It is the third addition to article 19 included in the DNU which did not modify an existing article, but rather included a central concept: “No right of a sports organization may be prevented, hindered, deprived or infringed, including its right of affiliation to a confederation, federation, association, league or union, according to its legal form, if it is recognized in this law and in the complementary rules.”

This imminent battle will involve a legal, but also political, path, under the gaze of the FIFA AND Conmebolthe two organizational areas of which it is part and which contemplate sanctions for those associations that come into conflict with their own States or, as in this case, interfere through a Government in the organization of the functioning of football, in whole or in part.

The DNU includes in its article 345 a transitional clause that marked the AFA camp, without even mentioning it. “Sports associations, federations and confederations will have one year, starting from this regulation, to amend their statutes in order to adapt to the terms set out therein, which must be applied without prejudice to compliance with pre-existing mandates”.indicates the last point of the decree that modifies the Sports Law.

In general terms, this law, 20,655replaced the term “civil sports associations” Of “sports organisations” in several articles, including article 16 which no longer limits state subsidies to AFA or neighborhood clubs: those that transform into joint-stock companies, They will also be able to access funds from the National Agency for Sport or overtime through other state resources.

In this way the SAD will be integrated into the Institutional System of Sport and Physical Activity which, among other things, grants scholarships to athletes who will also be able to enjoy the benefits hitherto reserved for non-profit civil associations, which grants reductions between 25 and 100%. of employer contributions.

Why is the national government interested in this reform that allows the privatization of football and has included it in the DNU battery among the “bases for the reconstruction of Argentina”? There is no answer, but there are the foundations of Milei himself in an interview given to Radio Rivadavia Thursday morning, following Wednesday evening’s announcements.

“(The clubs) will not be privatised, we give the possibility of expanding the regime of possible companies, it is optional. If you want to continue to have the club like now, you can have it like now. But there are “club A” and “club B”: “A” has historically done great things and “B” with fewer resources decides to enter a capitalist format, they inject money and “club B” now always wins and club “A”, let’s say that, with the logic of poverty, they will start to behave badly, and what will people want? May we be capitalists”, analyzed the president.

“It’s a way for people to realize how valuable capitalism is. Maybe what opposes it are those who want to maintain this level of misery because, perhaps, they run their own businesses. What’s the problem with expansion of the options menu? Does freedom bother you that much?Jonatan Viale’s radio space has been expanded.

The idea that civil societies, clubs as they are known, are associated with specious issues, is one of the central arguments, along with the lack of capacity or lack of professionalism of those who lead these entities. The topic is so recurring that the AFA itself has taken a position on the matter.

“There are many management models in the world: sports joint-stock companies, mixed systems, civil associations. And mismanagement is present in all those models. No one can guarantee that a SAD is synonymous with good management and that, instead, a civil association is bad”indicates the AFA in its Governance and Administration Report 2022.

In the same report, the association reports on the structure of existing controls on civil associations, both internally – the members of the club – and externally: the State and other third parties to the entity, such as the General Inspectorate of Justice (IGJ). , who is permanently in charge of the “legality control” of the clubs as they are currently known.

The AFA has not yet expressed its opinion on the matter nor have any of the main exponents referred to the news that arrived via decree. The president of Workshops, Andrés Fassi, who is also the owner of Juárez FC in Mexico and one of the founders of Grupo Pachuca, in the same country and whose goal is to buy a club in Spain. Behind him and protected by the new DNU, the new bastion will rise that will give rise to the next battle for the leadership of Argentine football. Or not.