Alberto Fernández did not speak with Claudio Tapia. Not only was there no call in the days before and after winning the long-awaited World Cup, but they didn’t even exchange a message. In that non-communication there was a presidential decision not to want to force the goals, although something also had to do with the tension that exists between them since the president had supported other candidates to take the helm of the AFA commanded by “el Chiqui”, former brother-in-law of Hugo Moyano.
The one who acted as an intermediary between the two was Aníbal Fernández, the Security Minister who is becoming more and more established as one of the few who are still militant for the President and his re-election. On Tuesday at 7.10 in the morning, the official entered the premises of the AFA in Ezeiza, accompanied by the head of the Federal Police, Juan Carlos Hernández. They brought Tapia two things: the first were aerial photos, practically in real time, which showed that large mobilizations of fans were already taking place both in the Conurbano and in various key points of the City -such as the Obelisk-, and the certainty that that the number of people in the streets would be vastly greater than they had been on the day of the final. The second was almost the necessary correlate of those images: that the plan that the players and Tapia had to leave in a convertible bus from the property to the Obelisk was impossible to carry out, and that the Casa Rosada was available. Here Aníbal transferred the words that Alberto had entrusted to him: that the Presidency would do what they wanted but that the Government would gladly receive the world champions. The Plaza de Mayo, and the Government House, had been previously conditioned for the occasion, with giant screens, flags -one on the historic balcony-, and Fernández’s ban on all non-essential personnel, and also officials, from enter the building. It was a display of excessive optimism: the players, and especially the AFA, never showed the slightest intention of going there.
But the party ended bittersweet. When the caravan began to get out of control, after two fans jumped on the bus from above a bridge -and when the possibility of going out onto the balcony of La Rosada was completely ruled out-, the minister made the unilateral decision to cut the route and exchange it for one from three helicopters. That aroused the anger of Tapia, who still insisted on following the tour, and through tweets against Fernández he crowned a long month of tensions, coldness and rudeness between the AFA and the national government. Politics, as always, was mixed with soccer. And with the Cup.
crowned with glory Fernández is a fanatic supporter of Argentinos Juniors. That is why no one was surprised that, like several of his predecessors, he had tried to influence the world of football since he took office. In fact, he even had some ideas of his own: it seemed to him that both Marcelo Tinelli, his friend Luis Segura -formerly president of Argentinos- or Marcelo Achile, president of Defensores de Belgrano, were more favorable for the position of the AFA than Tapia.
To that power struggle with “el Chiqui” was added a monetary one, at the beginning of 2020: the Government approved a decree, via AFIP, that forced all soccer clubs to pay around 8 percent more in taxes. Tapia made intense efforts to avoid this big tax, and even got a meeting with Alberto on the subject, but he was unsuccessful. Since then, both have been separated by an abyss.
Some in the Rosada put this historic tirria as one of the responses to the absence of the President in the final. Alberto’s closest friends, however, have justifications more of the earthly order: “It seemed to him that the social situation was not enough for him to go to Qatar, and apart from that, he did not want to break the cabal of seeing him with Fabiola, look if he went and we lost , I was like a mufa ”. The Mauricio Macri factor also weighed: the president of the FIFA Foundation spent the whole month in the country hosting the World Cup -he witnessed all the matches of the National Team-, he took photos with leaders and personalities from all over the world, and there was some fear that Alberto had to share the limelight with the former president during the medal ceremony. From the Macri circle they laugh at this version, and say that this was never a possibility, because the FIFA protocol is “very strict” and Macri does not have a sufficient position to be at the award ceremony.
But, with Monday’s newspaper, the bad relationship with Tapia comes back on the table. The Government showed that he does not have a valid interlocutor with the AFA boss, a man who not only returned with the Cup under his arm but also brought the full support of the entire squad and Lionel Messi. The only government official who has a direct line with “El Chiqui” is Santiago Carreras, director of YPF and who reports to the Kirchner universe. This good relationship -propelled by the millions that YPF provides, in advertising, to the AFA world and also, separately, to Messi- gave hope to several campers that the National Team would wink at Christianity after winning the Cup. The first photo that Andrés Larroque uploaded to his networks, as soon as Argentina achieved the victory, was of Tapia. Cristina Kirchner, on the other hand, shared a more formal greeting to Messi and praised his “Maradonean” insult. “La Cámpora operated with Tapia this slight to the Government. Santiago Carreras was Máximo’s man who screwed up Alberto”, stated Luis D’Elía. Some in the Government suspected a black hand of camporismo that had convinced Tapia not to go to La Rosada, a thesis that was reinforced when the AFA boss tweeted highlighting Berni’s work and criticizing Aníbal’s.
Prawns. However, it became clear that the distance between the National Team and the ruling party also reached the K ecosystem. Pedro’s “Wado”, the Interior Minister, and other officials from the camp, stood next to the plane that brought the players from Qatar in the early hours of Tuesday. But Messi and his team dribbled them, as if they were still on the field, when they touched Argentine soil and saw them. Tapia was the one who acted as a human shield to separate De Pedro, increasingly launched as a presidential candidate, from the players. There was, in the entire political universe, a single exception to the rule that the players imposed on themselves not to pose with any official. It was that of the governor of Santa Fe, Omar Perotti, who waited for Messi and Di María on the Rosario airport runway and who with that hug – and the photo of the moment that he strategically circulated through the media and networks – became the only one in his union to have a photo with the world champions.
But the ball, like any show, has to keep rolling. After the fervor for the World Cup and the Cup, Argentine soccer will start again at the beginning of 2023 and the Government and AFA will have to see each other again. The tense relationship between Tapia, empowered by the achievement, and the Government promises to have more chapters.
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