Argentinos Juniors 0 Olimpo 1
There is a shadow that hangs over Argentine football. It’s a large, omnipresent, fetid shadow that’s been there for more than thirty years although most choose to pretend it doesn’t exist.
This bulk that blocks out the sun goes by the name of Julio Grondona, the president of the Argentine Football Association, the AFA, and senior vice-president and chief bottom licker at football’s world governing body, FIFA.
Many refer to him as ‘The Godfather.’ And like Don Corleone, only a brave man or a fool challenges his authority. And Daniel Passarella is no fool.
In the dark corner - Julio Grondona
While we’ve seen the usual kicking and shouting on the pitch, the real action this past week has been off the pitch. Passarella, the president of River Plate, had the nerve, the cojones, to suggest in no uncertain terms that the time had come, after thirty-three years in the job, for Grondona to step down.
This caused shock waves throughout the Argentine footballing world of Emperor’s New Clothes-like proportions. There was a resounding, ear-splitting, ground shaking – SILENCE!
Grondona should go. That’s obvious to anyone who cares about open and honest administration and the general well-being of Argentine football. But he has such control of the game, so many are where they are through his patronage that Argentine football without Julio Grondona at the helm is simply inconceivable.
It would be like Libya without Gadaffi, Zimbabwe without Mugabe, the Pips without Gladys Knight.
While many will, quietly, be supporting Passarella’s attack, I fear he’s chosen the wrong reason to launch it. He blamed the referee!
Be honest! Have you ever been to a game without, at least once, complaining about the referee?
And in the Red and White corner - Daniel Passarella
We all do it. We know that they make mistakes, sometimes score-changing mistakes. We mock their bellies, the gangly way in which they run, we question their parentage, their eyesight, their honesty. But would you want to do what they do? I certainly wouldn’t. What kind of a person voluntarily puts themselves in front of tens of thousands of baying, bleating, blood-lusting fans every weekend with nothing but a whistle and a yellow card with which to defend themselves?
When they have a howler we hang them out to dry. When they perform well we don’t really notice. Have you ever seen a referee applauded off the pitch?
That was pretty much the basis of Passarella’s attack on Grondona – that the wrong referee was chosen to officiate in last Sunday’s superclasico when River Plate lost 2-0 to Boca.
That same referee, Patricio Loustau, had been the man in black, yellow or green (I don’t remember which) in the previous week’s game between Argentinos Juniors and Boca in which he was abysmal. He’s a young ref who in that match seemed to lose his authority.
But as fans we kind of see what we want to see. I find myself shouting ‘Penalty’ when I know, deep down, that it was a tumble. Blaming the referee for your woes is lame. Grondona simply told Passarella to challenge him in elections later this year.
But this Grondona v Passarella bout has put referees under the spotlight. Every performance is now picked apart and fault can usually be found. One of the better-respected refs, Saul Laverni, had a terrible game on Friday night when Godoy Cruz claimed he disallowed a perfectly good goal and denied them a perfectly clear penalty. The man himself later said it was his worst night. “I don’t understand what happened to me,” he said.
Olimpo fans...from way down south.
Meanwhile, another referee, Marcelo Aredondo, has been sidelined after claiming a senior colleague urged him to favour a team in a match in which he was officiating in the lower divisions. There are dirty dealings afoot but anyone who challenges the status quo had better be well-armed, have ample evidence and perhaps re-watch The Godfather, Part II, paying special attention to Michael Corleone’s relationship with his elder brother, Fredo.
As a former River Plate player, who lifted the 1978 World Cup as captain of the Argentina team which he later went on to manage, Passarella, has a huge standing in the game. Grondona was never a player. He is tarnished with his association with hard core fans and is an anti-semite, quoted in 2003 as saying a Jew would never make it as a top-level referee. “It’s hard work,” he said. “And, you know, Jews don’t like hard work.”
But no-one survives and thrives in politics in Latin America unless you know how to make yourself indispensable. Grondona could give master classes in the art. Gaddafi, Mugabe and perhaps even Gladys Knight might learn a thing or two.
So, to the game. This was one that both Argentinos Juniors and Olimpo, from way down south in Bahia Blanca, had to win to retain an outside chance of stealing the title. The home side huffed and puffed but simply couldn’t blow Olimpo’s house down and the visitors stole it with a breakaway five minutes from the end.
On the positive side, the referee Carlos Maglio had a faultless game. There were fans insulting him throughout but I, for one, applauded him off the pitch.
