During his time at the helm of the club he was the only one to openly talk about against Grondona and the way that AFA is run.
Under his presidency, Velez enjoyed the best results on and off the field, winning every possible title. From league titles to Copa Libertadores and Intercontinental titles, they won it all. The most impressive thing is that they did all that, whilst managing to keep the books in the black.
He, unsuccessfully tried to mount a challenge to Grondona’s leadership, but due to things he explains in the interview, his attempt failed.
A few years have gone by, and he has decided to leave high level football positions to younger people, but proud of the job he has done in the past.
Although time has passed, he still talks like he used to. Telling his side of the story, not evading any questions no matter how probing they are.
He talks as an insider, he lived it all from within, and that is why his opinion carries weight.
What motivated the interview was the resurgence of violence in Argentinean football, a subject that he always wanted to take strong action against, but soon all took a turn to the man he blames for all the problems for the state of the sport in the country.
You always said that you all knew the Barras, and it was impossible to deny it. Then, why is it still the case with the clubs and AFA?
RG- off course we all know who they are. Some are members of the club, some work at the club; some go to see the team train. Grondona says he does not know anything about the Barras, because he is a liar, as simple as that.
Saying that he knows them will give him a sense of responsibility. He does anything to deny any responsibility with anything that can bring suspicion or trouble.
That is cowardice, not leadership.
We all know how the barras travel to all the World Cups, we know who supports them financially and gets them their visas, etc.
If we were to find a solution on this front, the first step is for Grondona to go. This character needs to disappear for the good of our football.
It sounds straight forward, but why is it that nobody ever votes against him?
RG- it is virtually impossible to remove him. He has everything set up in order to guarantee his perpetuity in AFA.
The executive committee that votes for president are all those who answer to Grondona’s every wish. For many reasons they choose to just go with the flow.
But what are those reasons?
RG- Business. Always business. Let’s use a club as an example, a big club. River Plate, they have a relatively new president in Passarella. He found the club totally empty, no money at all.
Strange to begin with when they get a fair amount of money from TV rights on a monthly basis. But River needs money, they are a big club, they need to sign players.
So Passarella needs to kneel down to the AFA president and ask him for a loan to get those players. And that is River, so imagine all the other clubs, the smaller ones. They all need him, they all depend on him.
They still should stand up to him and fight for their clubs, but they are hypocrites and looking for an easy life.
How do clubs like Velez, All boys or Lanus manage to stay away from this and survive?
RG- Those clubs have understood that the best way forward was not to owe anybody money, that includes AFA. We never conducted or commented any of our businesses there, we were and are independent. That is not something Grondona likes. He must have total control of everything.
AFA is extremely rich, but for his plan to work, the clubs must be very poor.
We decided we were not going to manage ourselves that way.
How can anybody else wanting to become president of AFA ever mount a challenge?
RG- well that is the difficulty. All clubs will have to change their ways and be truthful, and less corrupt. For example always prior to elections there is either a WC or a Copa America taking place, and the presidents of the smaller clubs and their families are normally invited, all expenses paid, to attend those events. Are they going to vote against that?
The main ones that he tries to keep sweet, are those who represent the clubs away from Buenos Aires.
Not every club, as not all of them have a vote. Only the ones that serve a purpose.
First condition to be allowed to be a presidential candidate is to get 7 people of that executive committee to back you.
And the elections are not done secretly. You need to put your hand up, so everyone knows how you vote, and no one wants to be seen voting against Grondona.
The consequences could be terrible.
Then, it really sounds impossible to get him out of there.
RG- Yes. But until he goes, there is not solution. But it is not only him. We need to change the whole system in order to get out of this chain open to corruption and tyranny.
The fans and the world need to understand that he keeps the clubs poor in order to have them hostage of his power. He is an evil and perverted figure.
Nobody in 30 years has been able to end it. It can’t only be a football related matter.
RG- Off course not. National governments have had him in congress many times for questioning, they have always concluded that there were huge corruption cases to answer, but instead of taking him to court, they became partners.
Now they work together in “Futbol para todos” (“football for all”, which is a joint venture between National Government and AFA to take live football off cable TV and made it available to all in terrestrial TV)
As a project is amazing, and I support it. But where is the money going, and why call him corrupt and then pay him to take the program forward?
Grondona’s open obsession with money is totally unhealthy.
I look at the state of our game today and feel pity.
What about the National Team?
RG- What has happened with all the Managers since 98 is shameful.
He says he has never sacked a manager when in reality he drove them all to go, which in effect is the same.
Bielsa, was always put under pressure and could not work in peace. He did everything he could to make him lose patience and leave. He was never allowed to work the way he wanted to work.
Pekerman after the WC in Germany (nobody from AFA went to meet him at the airport on his way back from that WC), was told that the rights to all the games of the National Team were sold to a Russian Marketing company, and in order to negotiate better rates for the team, they were going to make some demands regarding who needed to play, and who needed to be left out. He resigned there and then. Even Tocalli (his right hand man, and manager of the youth teams) left immediately.
Basile came back thinking that everything was going to be like before, when he was manager from 90 to 94, but he got a surprise. Things have changed. Grondona was already grooming his son to be a future part of AFA, and put him as second in charge of all National Teams (Bilardo was the top man). Between his son trying to show power and the Russian Marketing company’s influence on team selection, they drove him to resign by putting the players against him.
Bianchi, was the chosen one, but he did not want to work under those conditions.
Then came Maradona, by this time, the Russians were away and the rights for the games were in the hands of a Spanish company.
AFA thought that they were going to be able to tell Diego what to do, who to call up, etc. But it did not happen, so they questioned his entourage, knowing that Diego will go if that happened.
They then appointed Batista, who is a decent person, but without the credentials for such a high profile job. So they “educated” him, and by that I mean that they influenced him. When it all went wrong he was the jobless one.
Do you have any objectives left in football?
RG- My fight will be the same. We need younger people, with a modern outlook of the game to take us forward. I want him out, and the system changed to avoid a repeat of the last 30 years.
But I am not doing it for Raul Gamez, I am doing it for our football that I love so much.
Well, there you are, as assertive as he has always been. Something tells me we have not seen the last of Raul Gamez.