Argentine Football

[Barry the bird boggler]

From the Scotsman...

THE kick-off to the Argentine domestic soccer season has been put on hold indefinitely while the game's national governing body seeks a solution to clubs' massive debts.

Bussed-in protesters also attacked the Argentina Football Association (AFA) headquarters, smashing windows and demanding the resignation of AFA president Julio Grondona.

"The executive committee of the AFA resolved unanimously that the championships in all categories should not start on the scheduled dates," a statement posted on the AFA website said.

The First Division Apertura championship, which is played between August and December in the first half of the season, had been scheduled to kick off on Friday, 14 August.

Argentine teams' participation in the Copa Sudamericana, the continent's equivalent of the Europa League which starts this week, would not be affected, or Diego Maradona's national team, who have a friendly against Russia in Moscow next week.

Grondona, also world body Fifa's senior vice-president, held talks with the government's chief tax officer, Ricardo Echegaray, and Sergio Marchi, secretary general of the players' union, Futbolistas Argentinos Agremiados (FAA) to try to resolve the debt issue.

While leaving the talks, Grondona said an increase in fees for television rights to matches would help ease clubs' debts.

"For me the solution is for the AFA to receive more money from the revenue of the television (rights)," he said.

A few hours after the talks, Grondona was the target of a demonstration outside his offices. The AFA headquarters in central Buenos Aires were attacked by about 100 people who arrived in two buses, threw stones at the building breaking windows, and shouted insults at Grondona.

They painted "Julio Grondona thief" on the wall and handed out leaflets saying "Grondona, liar and traitor ... resign now" before police dispersed the demonstrators, who did not appear to have allegiance with any football club.

Some of Argentina's biggest and most successful clubs are among the major debtors, including former South American champions River Plate, Racing Club as well as Independiente.

Sources close to the tax authorities say clubs owe the government 300million Argentine pesos (£46.3million), on top of debts to the AFA and, to a lesser extent, their own players.

"I hope the AFA follows its own rules and sanctions those (directors) who don't meet their obligations," Marchi said. "The (Argentine) game is poorly commercialised, it's obsolete...There are problems of infrastructure, the bathrooms of some clubs look like Kosovo," he said.

[FiNeRaIn]

Argentine fans make me laugh- always kicking off at something