Throughout the years, many have accused Julio Humberto Grondona of being a corrupt, mafia like, dictator who will do anything to stay in charge of the Argentinean FA.
He has been in place since 1979, and has “won” every election held since then, mostly unopposed.
But how and why he manages to stay and stay?
He has run the AFA like a mini FIFA.
You get all the accusations about corruption there, but very little seems to be done about it.
There have been bribery claims, gifts and presents in order to get votes to organise world cups or other events, but nothing ever really comes up.
I mean if you are representing a so called lesser country, and all of a sudden you get showered with cash, cars, luxury stay in hotels, new facilities for your association, etc. it is not easy to turn them down.
At the same time you know you are going to be the only one to raise your voice and in the end will pay the consequences.
Now take this down a few levels back to Argentina, and Grondona has done exactly the same through the years with the members of the executive committee.
Elections in the FA are suspiciously always held closely after World Cups.
Is the president of a small club with no chance of ever playing top flight football,ever going to vote against the man who, takes him and his wife to see a World Cup?
There are also big clubs you may think, and they surely should oppose or voice their concerns if any.
Think again.
The TV rights for every championship or game is negotiated by the AFA and the clubs receive what they are given. A case of rich association and poor clubs.
They depend on their relationship with Grondona to get a better deal for everything.
Strange things happened as well.
River Plate’s President and world cup winner Daniel Pasarella, was so angry after a match against archrivals Boca Juniors that he shouted at Grondona and even dare asking him to resign over it.
River Plate went on to be relegated after that incident.
Extreme as it may seem. Why should Pasarella shout at Grondona over poor refereeing after all.
Well, the referees are decided by…….Julio Humberto Grondona. In theory there is a “referee committee” who does that. There are 2 referee unions in the country. One is regulated by the AFA and the other is not. The unions both work under that committee, who selects the referees for the games. But before they are made official, Grondona needs to approve them.
How can anyone explain that a club that Grondona and his family founded and in fact is still run by the family, called Arsenal and has less than 10000 supporters, still has Top class grass from Holland, Floodlights from Japan and have some co-operation contracts signed with Barcelona!!!
I think it is clear how the ship is run and why he will still be there until he decides to step down.
Not his fault though. It comes a time in which the other executives should put their foot down, be men and act as a group to get rid of the problem holding back our progress.
He has been in place since 1979, and has “won” every election held since then, mostly unopposed.
But how and why he manages to stay and stay?
He has run the AFA like a mini FIFA.
You get all the accusations about corruption there, but very little seems to be done about it.
There have been bribery claims, gifts and presents in order to get votes to organise world cups or other events, but nothing ever really comes up.
I mean if you are representing a so called lesser country, and all of a sudden you get showered with cash, cars, luxury stay in hotels, new facilities for your association, etc. it is not easy to turn them down.
At the same time you know you are going to be the only one to raise your voice and in the end will pay the consequences.
Now take this down a few levels back to Argentina, and Grondona has done exactly the same through the years with the members of the executive committee.
Elections in the FA are suspiciously always held closely after World Cups.
Is the president of a small club with no chance of ever playing top flight football,ever going to vote against the man who, takes him and his wife to see a World Cup?
There are also big clubs you may think, and they surely should oppose or voice their concerns if any.
Think again.
The TV rights for every championship or game is negotiated by the AFA and the clubs receive what they are given. A case of rich association and poor clubs.
They depend on their relationship with Grondona to get a better deal for everything.
Strange things happened as well.
River Plate’s President and world cup winner Daniel Pasarella, was so angry after a match against archrivals Boca Juniors that he shouted at Grondona and even dare asking him to resign over it.
River Plate went on to be relegated after that incident.
Extreme as it may seem. Why should Pasarella shout at Grondona over poor refereeing after all.
Well, the referees are decided by…….Julio Humberto Grondona. In theory there is a “referee committee” who does that. There are 2 referee unions in the country. One is regulated by the AFA and the other is not. The unions both work under that committee, who selects the referees for the games. But before they are made official, Grondona needs to approve them.
How can anyone explain that a club that Grondona and his family founded and in fact is still run by the family, called Arsenal and has less than 10000 supporters, still has Top class grass from Holland, Floodlights from Japan and have some co-operation contracts signed with Barcelona!!!
I think it is clear how the ship is run and why he will still be there until he decides to step down.
Not his fault though. It comes a time in which the other executives should put their foot down, be men and act as a group to get rid of the problem holding back our progress.