Two moves sealed, and a protest afoot

Juan Román Riquelme has signed a two year contract with Atlético Madrid. There, it’s done at last. Now let’s move on.

Juan Pablo Carrizo will fly back from Rome to Buenos Aires on Friday to rejoin River Plate on loan for six months. ‘Complications’ (which given some of the fuss a few years ago with in particular Seba Verón, may or may not be a hint of something very illegal indeed) with the legitimacy of his claim to Italian citizenship have arisen, and Lazio don’t want him to remain inactive whilst they’re sorted out, so have loaned him back to River.

Around two-thirds of the club’s fans, so sad to see him leave last month, now believe Daniel Passarella must stick with impressive new boy Juan Ojeda between the sticks all the same. Some people just can’t make their minds up, can they?

Very definitely making their minds up, however, are fans of Racing, who if they didn’t already know what it feels like to have one’s dignity torn away in brutal fashion, do now after their side’s extraordinary capitulation to San Lorenzo on Tuesday night, when La Academia managed the arguably rather impressive feat of contriving to lose a game in which they’d led 3-0 after 28 minutes.

Blaming it on players or manager would of course be too easy, so Racing’s fans have turned on the club’s directors, perhaps not entirely without good reason since the team have been useless for some time now, dreadful throughout last season, and a change of manager and playing personnel doesn’t seem to be making much difference. Leadership from the top, they argue, is distinctly lacking.

A little explanation is needed here for those not familiar with the back story. In 1999, Racing were declared bankrupt, and were rescued in 2001 by a benevolent group set up specially for the job, named Blanquiceleste (‘white-and-sky-blue’, the colours of Racing’s shirt). This resulted in Racing being the only sizeable privately owned club in Argentina, and meant the directors have been in no way answerable to the fans (except for the obvious point that they are themselves supporters, or at least were when all this started).

Good things came from this such as the ability – uniquely in Argentina – to ban the club’s barra brava, La Guardia Imperial, from home matches and, well, the fact that Racing Club got to carry on playing football. But too much dislocation of a club from the ordinary fan is a bad thing, and now the fans are revolting.

Many Racing message boards on Thursday carried plans to turn Sunday’s match at home to River into a mass protest, handing out pamphlets before the match as well as planning a march in La Plata on Wednesday the 5th September, with the aim of asking exactly what financial position the club is in, and – perhaps most importantly for fans who want some of their voice back – demanding elections be held for the club presidency immediately.

So how much power do the fans have? The first protest is scheduled to begin on Friday night at 8pm local time at the club stadium, and by Sunday’s match with River we’ll have a better idea exactly how deep the feeling runs. But Blanquiceleste may be about to discover that merely owning a business isn’t enough to keep hold of a club’s soul.

Picture taken from akademia.com.ar