\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t The AFA scandal over the end-of-the-year champion continues to escalate. On Thursday, the Argentine Football Association announced a six-month ban for Estudiantes de La Plata President Juan Sebasti\u00e1n Ver\u00f3n. The club leader had been in the spotlight after his players had refused to salute controversial champions Rosario Central before the match the two played. The players who were part of the protest also got a two-match ban.<\/p>\n
The news of Ver\u00f3n\u2019s sanction prompted former Security Minister Patricia Bullrich to say that she will investigate the football association\u2019s \u201ctransparency\u201d from her new position as senator.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bullrich claimed \u201cthere are plenty of irregularities\u201d within Argentine football\u2019s governing body but said there are still no plans for the government to intervene in the AFA.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe country is marching towards order, not discretionality,\u201d Bullrich said in an interview with Radio Mitre. \u201cAFA is going backwards on that road. It\u2019s filled with Tapia\u2019s entourage, all of whom became millionaires.\u201d<\/p>\n
The former security minister also backed the Estudiantes players, who \u201cgot a ban like they had killed someone.\u201d She also insisted that AFA is \u201cholding clubs hostage.\u201d<\/p>\n
The ban on Estudiantes players The AFA Disciplinary Tribunal issued the ban on Wednesday night, with a three-part sanction. According to the statement, Ver\u00f3n, the players, and the team captain were found guilty of \u201cinciting the local crowd to violence.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ver\u00f3n will be suspended \u201cfor all and any football-related activities\u201d for six months, effective\u00a0immediately. This means he\u2019ll be unable to represent the club before AFA bodies or sign documents or petitions as the club\u2019s highest authority. He\u2019ll also be banned from areas reserved for club representatives during matchdays.<\/p>\n
The players involved in the protest will serve their two-match ban in next year\u2019s tournament. That means they\u2019ll still be able to feature in their 2025 Torneo Clausura quarterfinals matchup against Central C\u00f3rdoba (Santiago del Estero) on Friday, as well as the potential semifinals and finals should they qualify.<\/p>\n
Additionally, captain Santiago N\u00fa\u00f1ez will be unable to serve as such for three months, and the club will have to pay an AR$120 million fee (around US$81,000 at the official rate).<\/p>\n
You may also be interested in: AFA\u2019s Tapia defiant amid accusations of favoritism and corruption in football<\/p>\n
\u2018We have to keep our guard up\u2019 In an interview on Friday, Ver\u00f3n gave his version of the events, insisting there was no vote to award Rosario Central the title, contradicting the claim made by AFA President Claudio Tapia and Central authorities.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat they put forward, and which wasn\u2019t part of the order of the day, was an acknowledgement, which is very different from gifting a team a title,\u201d he said in an interview with Radio Con Vos. He added that he felt everything was \u201cstaged\u201d by AFA so nobody would raise any objections in having the Central players pose with the trophy<\/p>\n
Ver\u00f3n said he\u2019s not concerned about AFA treasurer Pablo Toviggino\u2019s comments for him but questioned the threatening words.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Last Friday, Toviggino tweeted directly at Ver\u00f3n without naming him, referencing instead the hat the Estudiantes president wears. \u201cWhat a year we and you have coming up. Watch out, beret guy,\u201d Toviggino posted on X. \u201cBetter fulfill the rules established by the governing body, the AFA.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ver\u00f3n warned that the threat meant that his club had to keep its \u201cguard up.\u201d \u201cThat\u2019s how they work, and things don\u2019t usually end well. It could end up with us getting relegated and suffering poor refereeing. It\u2019s something that has happened, and we\u2019re used to it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Estudiantes released a statement following the sanction expressing its \u201cfull support\u201d for Juan Sebasti\u00e1n Ver\u00f3n, Santiago Nu\u00f1ez, and the team. The release added that the club is \u201canalyzing the sanction\u201d in order to defend the club\u2019s interests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The AFA scandal over the end-of-the-year champion continues to escalate. On Thursday, the Argentine Football Association announced a six-month ban for Estudiantes de La Plata President Juan Sebasti\u00e1n Ver\u00f3n. The club leader had been in the spotlight after his players had refused to salute controversial champions Rosario Central before the match the two played. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":13437,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2890,2885,4354,4496,4497,474,67],"tags":[4351,4493,4352,4494,4495,4246,1369],"class_list":["post-13436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afa","category-claudio-chiqui-tapia","category-estudiantes-de-la-plata","category-juan-sebastian-veron","category-pablo-toviggino","category-patricia-bullrich","category-sports","tag-afa","tag-claudio-chiqui-tapia","tag-estudiantes-de-la-plata","tag-juan-sebastian-veron","tag-pablo-toviggino","tag-patricia-bullrich","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13436\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}