The paradox of River Plate

Many maintain that the present of the Club Atletico River Plate is very similar to the Argentina, a country that in principal has everything to be a potency (variety of climates, extension of its territory, not many inhabitants, rich grounds) but cannot avoid its continuous decadency.

With River, the team that shone for a long time in South America for the prolific of its players who afterwards pertained to the best European teams, occurs exactly the same.

In fact, if tomorrow would begin the season 2009/10, River would have been for the first time in its history in the last position within the list of averages for the descend in category for the National Contest B (second division of the Argentinean football), among the eighteen teams that continue in the maximum division and would only be below the two clubs that ascended end of the present season.

River would part, for the moment, nine points below its immediate antecessor team, namely, three matches below, due that for the average list, since twenty six years the Asociación del Fútbol Argentino (AFA), takes for computing the final average, the points obtained in the last three complete seasons, meaning, the last three tournaments disputed (two for season, the Aperture and Closure).

On the other hand, this indicates, that the situation of River does not come out from the last months, but it concerns a large process through which the directives wasted the very important funds obtained by the sale of players to the best teams of the World at high values and in Euros that have a great force at the Exchange rate in Argentina.

In those last years, we may cite that River sold, for instance, Luis González, Javier Mascherano, Esteban Cambiasso, Juan Pablo Sorín, Diego Placente, Germán Burgos, Franco Costanzo, Germán Lux, Juan Pablo Carrizo, Pablo Aimar, Javier Saviola, Hernán Crespo, Juan Pablo Angel, Marcelo Salas, Marcelo Gallardo, Ariel Ortega, Fernando Belluschi, Fernando Cavenaghi, Santiago Solari and so many others, but not only did not obtain benefits, instead they became poor to such a point that they have no money to register new players, neither had new stars from their always remarkable inferior divisions.

The enormous grade of corruption of the directives, represented by the president José María Aguilar, proximate to abandon the position due to the next elections, december 5th. explain what occurred with an institution that in the past was always a model of sport managment and it is not by accident that it concerns a club with more Argentinean triumphs since the instauration of professionalism (1931), with 33 conquers and ten ahead Boca Juniors, that over passed them in International awards.

The fact that in the elections of December 5th five lists will be presented when even originally there were counted near twenty candidates for president, among them the ex player and coach, Daniel Passarella, who pretends to give he entity an European air, fans of which are already resigned after having insulted for two years the players, coaches and directives, and they look forward to a miracle now for the second part of the season, the first semester of 2010 when the new president is already in charge.

Also the Uruguayan ex crack Enzo Francéscoli appears backing one of the candidates, in his new position as manager, that already covers Carlos Bianchi in Boca Juniors, Christian Bassedas in Vélez Sársfield or César Luis Menotti in Independiente, though many believe that it concerns a job still not very well understood in the country as it is more related to the registrations and Argentina is a country exporter of footballists not importer, and therefore, is not a model that generates future security

Another matter that River should solve in next months and is linked with everything mentioned before, it is related to the violence that surrounds the club as from the problems among the factions of their “barra bravas” that includes the assassination in 2008 of Gonzalo Acro, executed one day that there was no match in the stadium.

River’s fans, known as “Los borrachos del tablón”,(drunks of the plunk) were past of very serious actions of violence, though the hardest were called as “La batalla de los quinchos”, so, the violent of two factions fought on one Sunday in a social zone of the club, between tables of the guests, to quarrel about the money corresponding to what River received for the sale of Gonzalo Higuaín to the Real Madrid, in January 2007, and another battle in the occasion of the classic between River and Independiente because the president Aguilar maintains this had place outside of the club’ installations, but some fans footed images with their cellular phones within the club, that quickly won diffusion through TV channels.

Today River lives a dramatic situation since the first great menace to descend of its team without stars and with veteran players as Gallardo or Ortega, though the most unusual case is that of the ex World Championship player (1998) Matias Almeida, that retired five years ago, was convinced to come back and today is an indispensable player in the structure of the group conducted by another historical man of the nineties, Leonardo Astrada.

But also River need to change its tremendous economic panorama and to solve the problems of the violent that have a complete unpunishment, meanwhile the directives continue selling cheap packages of players to dark executives to obtain a fresh money. The most curious case, in this sense, is that of the forwarder of San Lorenzo Menseguez. He came from the inferior divisions of River, but was transferred to the German Wolfsburgo without having played one single match in first division and when he returned to the country he did it with another vest and was remarkable.

Paradox of this unrecognizable River of this time.