Winds of change for local football fans
The end of the era of free-to-air football has arrived. President Mauricio Macri’s government and the authorities inside the Argentine Football Association (AFA) should give supporters a higher priority as they reform the sport.
In a pretty shabby piece of electoral manipulation TNT and Fox, the two US-based companies given broadcasting rights for the new Superliga, were convinced not to implement plans to charge for their services until after the final ballot had been tallied. “It is simply a coincidence,” government sources insisted to La Nación.
The times they are achangin’.
After months of what may go down in history of one of the meanest, most miserable electoral campaigns in recent memory, President Mauricio Macri has emerged from the polls strengthened and seemingly more confident. Just what the ‘change’ so vehemently promised from the government will mean shall be seen further down the line, but even the world of football is expected to feel the difference before too long.
Football fans will indeed feel the first change in their pockets almost immediately. In a pretty shabby piece of electoral manipulation TNT and Fox, the two US-based companies given broadcasting rights for the new Superliga (“Super League”), were convinced not to implement plans to charge for their services until after the final ballot had been tallied.
“It is simply a coincidence,” government sources insisted to
La Nación, but it is clear in any case that now that the public’s opinion has been gauged, it is apparently safe to lift the veil.
From this weekend onwards most of the Superliga’s clashes will be behind a paywall, even for cable customers. Just four games, predictably featuring none of the ‘big five’ of Boca Juniors, River Plate, San Lorenzo, Independiente and Racing Club, will still be open to non-subscribers, a pattern that looks set to continue for the rest of the season.
Anyone not satisfied by the likes of Colón’s visit to Banfield or the clash between Defensa y Justicia and Olimpo will have to pay out a monthly fee of 300 pesos to unlock the rest of the fixture list, a further hit to the pocket after a 10-percent petrol hike following the elections and further raises expected in utilities before the year is out.
Unfortunately, there is little word on what else will change in a local game that is crying out for transformation.
Take the sticky issue of away fan attendance, for example. Visitors have been excluded from almost every single Pri
mera División and Superliga game for over four years, an admission of defeat from the authorities after decades of failing to guarantee safety at big games. The move has not eradicated football violence, nor put a single dent in the hooligan groups that still hold so much sway around stadiums.
Yet in a depressing case of making the exceptional the norm, this black mark appears to have fallen off any politician’s agenda.
“We can see in the new AFA leadership and with the Superli
ga a different commitment with the security issue,” Guillermo Madero, head of a football taskforce in the Security Ministry told Clarín back in August.
Madero was full of possible solutions to the impasse, including new ticket sale systems, biometric data at gates and tighter regulations. But so far little of that has translated into reality, and the return of away fans looks no closer than it did at the start of Macri’s government almost two years ago.
How long can this shameful situation continue?
At the very least, Macri’s insistence on chasing the 2030 World Cup alongside Uruguay and Paraguay should ensure some movement on this issue when the bid is in full swing, as showing FIFA spectators stadiums with fans banished would be a spectacular own goal. But what of further down the leagues, where substandard safety measures have literally proved deadly in some cases, as with Emanuel Ortega, the San Martín de Burzaco player who passed away after crashing into a perimeter wall?
If changes are to be made, they will be extremely welcome – as long as they tackle the real problems in the Argentine game, and are not limited just to making it more expensive for supporters.