The office that Tinelli “did not see”, the unrecorded visits and the enigma of the San Martín painting: 8 stories from the legendary AFA building in via Viamonte

“If these walls could talk”, goes the saying and those who invoke it usually say less than what happened, because they cannot tell all the stories that are contained in a place or because what happened between four walls is irreproducible.

Between the walls of the building Viamonte 1366, some well-known stories happened, others little known and some unpublished. The room on the top floor which was the home of a journalist and the summit meeting with the leader of a Brava group, in the library on the fourth floor. There is a missing painting of San Martín and the search for him has become a matter of state.

Tinelli despised an office that an unknown Chiqui Tapia had made better use of. Two leaders clashed before a meeting and had to be separated. Infantino was the only FIFA president to visit the building that in recent years has ceased to be the nerve center of Argentine football, which now has its epicenter in the Lionel Messi property in Ezeiza.

There is the possibility that the AFA will turn it into a museum, that it will be handed over to a third party to fulfill that purpose, or that after its sale a better real estate company will demolish it to build a complex on the foundations of football. .

The apartment on the terrace

There is an upper floor that cannot be reached by elevator. In the eighth, when in 1940 they laid the foundation stone of the emblematic building of Argentine football, they designed a small apartment for the owner or administrator of the condominium. Cayetano Ruggieri, former Diario Crónica journalist and AFA media manager from 2000 to 2008, became mayor of the palace after being widowed and was summoned by Grondona to ease the pain. Until shortly after 2015 he was the owner of the keys to Argentine football and one of the custodians of the customs of the building.

The painting of San Martino

When the building had its first renovation after Grondona’s death, there was a painting that was the center of an unexpected scene for several days. The intention was to place it in the room on the third floor where the committee meetings had moved, when there were 30 First Division teams. When he’s on one of his usual tours Ruggieri noticed the absence of the fresco arrived in 1956 to replace the painting by Juan Domingo Perón – who retired in 1955 – the entire building fell into panic. For the first time in 60 years the painting of the Liberator was missing and until two days later they found it crammed in the cellar, no one did anything other than undertake the search.

Only one FIFA president passed through the entrance

But the painting of San Martín which crowned the meetings of 19 authorities, including the president and the auditors of the association, did not appear in the photo of the only visit to the building by a FIFA president. Until then, Joao Havelange and Josep Blatter had arrived in the country, but the Brazilian had set foot on the soil of Rosario in 1974 and the Swiss had arrived in Sarandí, at the Grondona service station where he had a tiny office in which he did not there was room for Witnesses.

In 2017 Gianni Infantino arrived in Buenos Aires for less than 24 hours and was received by the leaders of Argentine football, after the intervention of a Normalizing Commission, and the brand new president elected by the clubs, Claudio Tapia, was the guest of an unprecedented visit . Did they remove the hero painting? No, he was always behind the screen on which an institutional video was projected with Chiqui’s first steps.

Illustrious visits and also of other kinds

Long before Infantino arrived in Viamonte, the palace received another delegation that was not recorded in the register. Before the World Cup in South Africa, the fourth floor library was the scene of an atypical meeting. “Dear journalists, please vacate the room, we have to hold a private meeting in this place.“said a manager of a club that, then and currently, played in Primera B. Then, he arranged for the entry of at least four barrabravas, led by whoever was the leader of Independiente. In addition to the leader of the promotion, there was there were two others from the Primera – one of them the most popular – and the conclave ended with the presence of Don Julio. They say it was the first time that the bars set foot in a library, but not the only time they walked into the corridors of the AFA.

You don’t need bars to make him bite

On the night that football called off the strike, two representatives of the B Nacional clubs were on their way to a meeting with the others. The bottleneck in front of the entrance to the third meeting room gathered managers, accredited journalists and part of the brand new communications staff who looked at football with suspicion, as if it were a team led by Marcelo Tinelli.

Among the murmurs, a voice could be made out that was growing vehemently. “Don’t be a fool with me, I’ll shit you,” said the vice-president of Central Córdoba in Santiago del Estero, Bernardo Abruzese, who received a push from the recipient of the warning: Carlos Ahumada, a sort of manager of Estudiantes in San Luis. The first pineapples coming from Santiago passed nearby and if it hadn’t been for the “Tinelli Boys”, who interceded to separate them, things would have ended badly. The match happened and the ball rolled again.

Tinelli and the office (to which) he did not go

Marcelo Tinelli’s emergence at Viamonte was sporadic and paradoxical: he rarely set foot in the building even though his desire was to coach Argentine football. His presence was omniscient and he believed in the possibility of remote management. He arrived to “modernize” the press area and took the latest cover of the monthly magazine published by the AFA. He took cover. The only time Grondona illustrated it was post-mortem.

When he requested an office on the third floor, the historic floor of the presidency, they renovated a tiny office on the fourth floor, where the Federal Council operates, which he never used due to its small size. The one who took advantage of this was Claudio Tapia, who had not yet appeared on the major football radars and began to form an alliance with Ascenso del Interior which bore fruit some time later.

The howling “wolf”.

A few months ago, around 7pm, when the building began to empty after the end of the administrative staff’s working day, we began to hear a howl similar to that of a wolf. Insistent, every day the characteristic and almost melancholy cry of the alleged animal was heard even if there was no moon or it was full. Knowing every corner and perhaps interpreting those walls that know how to speak, at the appointed time the phone rang first in the press room. The display read “Presidency”. One of those present picked up the receiver and Grondona’s unmistakable voice was heard on the other end. “Be careful, there is a wolf on the loose, but don’t worry, we will hunt him down. “Good afternoon,” he said, and the howling was never heard again.

The home of football is called Maradona

The first anniversary of Diego Maradona’s death arrived with the recognition of the AFA, which named the emblematic building after him. On November 25, 2021, the property always referred to as Viamonte 1366 began to have the full name of the star. If the sale goes through, if the AFA stops having that building under its cadastral property, once again – even if symbolically – football will be left without El Diego.