Two weeks ago, this column predicted that the electoral battle in Boca Juniors between Juan Román Riquelme and Mauricio Macri had the potential to be the biggest and most bitter in Argentine football history – the events that have followed this past fortnight have shown that if anything, we sold it short. Things have got very messy indeed around La Bombonera, to the extent that the very election itself has been suspended and cast in serious doubt.
From the outset the potential was there for an unprecedented dirty tricks campaign, what Argentines in the vernacular call “muddying the playing field.” On a personal level the eternal feud between Macri, technically running as vice-president to political ally Aníbal Ibarra but in practice the man right in the middle of the spotlight, and his former star number 10 at Boca has turned nastier than ever.
The latest round of verbal sparring saw the unlikely figure of Almoez Ali, Qatar's centre-forward at the 2022 World Cup, take centre-stage. Riquelme accused his opponent of intervening in Boca's previous sponsorship deal with Qatar Airways and ordering the striker be added to the Xeneize ranks in order to continue the partnership, a condition which Román categorically refused to meet. Macri made no attempt to deny that claim, but instead played it down, stating that all he wanted was for Ali to “play a few minutes in the Copa Argentina” and keep the Qataris on board – without the forward, the sponsorship deal fell through a matter of months later.
Far more serious than that wrangling though is the judicial side of matters.
To provide some background, exactly who is eligible to vote in any given football poll is invariably a matter of contention. An election is barely complete without at least one complaint from the opposition that the incumbent, who generally operates from a considerable position of strength, has swollen the membership in the hope of bolstering their own support. Generally, such accusations are taken into consideration and tabled until after election day in the (generally non-existent) event that the vote is close enough that those extra ballots would make a difference.
But this is Boca, and Macri. Those who see the politician as a master operator in the labyrinthine Argentine justice system saw it as no surprise when Judge Alejandra Débora Abrevaya upheld the opposition's complaint and, just five days before Sunday's planned vote, ordered proceedings to be suspended until the dispute over member voting rolls can be resolved. If that date falls beyond December 15, Boca could even be subject to intervention from a government body whose chief would be appointed by new president Javier Milei, whose run-off campaign was co-administered with typically meticulous attention to detail by none other than the prospective Xeneize vice-president and enthusiastic, if unseen participant in the coming government.
While Ibarra and Macri took to the courts, Riquelme turned to the streets. Thousands of Boca fans surrounded the Bombonera in support of his administration and to condemn the apparent meddling in the electoral process, while Román himself did not mince his words in once more going after his nemesis: “They are messing with what is most sacred to us. Our shirt's badge and colours are the greatest. But there is one thing above all: the fans, you cannot touch them and they are doing great harm... they want to rip our heart out.”
Thursday's mediation between the two sides' legal counsel failed to bear fruit, and an even more acrimonious battle now lies ahead under the shadow of an election without a date, possible intervention and thousands of fans, for the time being in any case, deprived of their right to choose who they wish to lead their club for the next four years.
This stand-off can only harm Boca and Argentine football as a whole; while all of the benefits appear to sit on the side of Macri, a gambler on a hot streak who has pulled out every card possible to turn the odds in his favour these past months.
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