“Bad day to be anti-SAF”, joked the deputy press secretary of Javier Milei, his namesake Javier Lanari, in his profile on X.
The Copa Libertadores final between two Brazilian teams in Buenos Aires and Botafogo’s victory provided the Argentine government with an argument to once again defend the Football Societies.
And Lanari continued: “The case of Botafogo is astonishing; three years ago the team was broke, until an American businessman bought and invested, today they are champions of the Copa Libertadores (and in Argentina).” The president shared this and several other publications.
The victory of the black and white team at the Monumental de Núñez stadium was used by supporters of Javier Milei and by the head of Casa Rosada himself to resume the defense of the SAFs (SAD in Spanish), an issue that the ultraliberal brought up in his campaign and which is the target of resistance fans and the AFA (Argentine Football Association).
The matter is far from a consensus, but Milei challenged the AFA. At the beginning of the year, in an extensive decree that changed the rules of the entire economy and the Argentine State, it established that the association would have one year to change its regulations and start allowing the incorporation of clubs that have the legal status of SAF.
Months later, in August, he published another decree to regulate the rule. Milei’s package was blocked in the Senate, but it has not yet been analyzed by the Chamber, so it will remain in force, unless the latter House analyzes the project and also gives it a red card. Meanwhile, the AFA took legal action, and a local court blocked the measure, which remains under analysis in other instances.
This changes the local model considerably. For more than 50 years, the Sports Law has established that, to be part of a sports activities association, groups must be legally organized as a non-profit civil association.
The decree also led the Football Association to ask FIFA (International Football Federation) and Conmebol (South American Football Confederation) to take a position.
In a statement at the time, Conmebol said that “establishing the obligation for clubs to foresee the transformation into a SAF is a blatant interference by the State”. Furthermore, he said that “it is completely unconditional, arbitrary and contrary to human rights for a law to require the AFA to accept a member who does not meet its parameters.”
The AFA itself stated that “it knows what model of football it represents and what model it wants for its institutions —non-profit civil associations—, no matter how much they try to change us with decrees, seeking to weaken Argentine football to try to convince us of something that is not It serves our football model.”
Around Milei, Javier Lanari continued: “In 118 years of history, Botafogo had zero Copa Libertadores, but, with two years of SAF, they won one.” The reference is to the central figure of John Textor, the boss of Botafogo, who acquired 90% of the team’s shares.
Owner of a fortune in excess of US$1 billion (close to R$6 billion), the North American businessman also controls Lyon (from the French first division) and Molenbeek (from the Belgian second division).
The Milei government has the support of its Sports Secretary, Daniel Scioli, former ambassador to Brazil, who defends the SAFs as a project that can enhance Argentine football, even though this politician has been flirting with Peronism and the ultra-right for five years. supported a project to prevent the transformation of clubs into SAFs.
For Milei, the local impediment to Football Societies is a demonstration of “impoverishing socialism in football”, as he wrote in a message this year.
When he proposed the privatization model during the campaign for Casa Rosada, the current president saw emphatic demonstrations from the main Argentine clubs.
On the occasion, River Plate (whose stadium now hosted Botafogo’s triumph) said that, following the spirit of its founders, “it is opposed to joint-stock companies in Argentine football and that it is a non-profit civil association and will always be one of its partners and their partners”.
Racing made a similar statement, as did San Lorenzo and Rosario Central, Ángel Di María’s birthplace. Boca Juniors said that “it will always be committed to the social reality of its sporting and cultural activities and that, convinced of the transcendent role that clubs have had in Argentina for more than a century, it is against any initiative that involves privatization or sale”.
