Sport Boys do not yet know if they will play in League 1 or League 2 in 2023, but this situation is far from the most complicated in their history: 10 years ago, the Rosés were minutes away from being relegated to their league of origin.
sports guys is going through moments of uncertainty in the middle of the 2023 pre-season: while the start of League 1 remains uncertain between the conflict over television rights and the protests at the national level, the Rosés are experiencing their own crisis that puts their participation in the tournament in question Peruvian first division. After the fight for the “A” license that allowed them to play in Liga 1 2023, another stone lay in the road: the license commission deducted the boys 8 points from the 2022 table.
Nevertheless, the pink squad continues to work and the club has the opportunity to appeal against this unit deduction. While it’s a tricky situation, many Chalacos fans know the team they love has weathered darker moments than these. Almost 10 years have passed, but the boys’ darkest and most critical episode is not forgotten: in 2013 the club was on the brink of administrative relegation to the Copa Perú.
Sport Boys are running their 2023 pre-season despite uncertainty due to non-football issues. Photo: Sports Boys
Sport Boys and the crisis in the Peruvian 2nd division 2013
No one is surprised that Sport Boys is a team that has been struggling financially for several years, but especially in the middle of the 2013 season the club felt closer to rock bottom than ever. After an unsuccessful resignation of his interim administration in July and other events reflecting the serious institutional crisis, the situation became truly critical in August.
Boys were penalized again for failing to credit the payments to his team and this left them less than a month away from an eventual administrative relegation to the Copa Perú unless those debts are settled. At the time, there were fears that the game against Sportivo Huracán on August 24 could be the team’s last professional game. The same happened before losing to Alianza Universidad a week later.
Sport Boys drew 1-1 against Sportivo Huracán on matchday 18 of the second division of 2013. Photo: La Voz de Arequipa newspaper
What problem did the Sport Boys have in August 2013?
The new sanction against Sport Boys was due to the lack of legal recognition of the payments made to the ADFP-SD for the months of May, June and July. About $40,000 was needed to pay off the debt, according to Marco Sedano, then president of the administration, in Ovation. The desperation arose from the fact that this amount had to be raised in less than a week.
Payment deadline was Monday 2nd September at 18:00. Sedano publicly disclosed the amount of money needed and the fact that the club would lose their right to continue participating in the Segunda División tournament if they didn’t get it. The die seemed to be cast as these statements were made on August 28th.
ADFP-SD statement about Sport Boys losing points in August 2013. Photo: ADFP-SD
How was Sport Boys saved in 2013?
“May the above help us,” blog Zona Rosada wrote when it was revealed that the club initially had until 6pm on August 29 to prove the outstanding payments for the three months. Miraculously, this “prayer” began to work as the holiday on Friday 30th resulted in the deadline being extended to Monday 2nd September.
The boys needed money to rain from the sky to save themselves. Although many fans failed to realize the seriousness of the matter at the time, the team they loved was minutes away from embarrassing their own history with a sad relegation to the Copa Perú. However, a real-life deus ex machina would flip the script: for want of nothing, an “anonymous partner” paid off the club’s debts.
There was much speculation at the time as to who this hero might have been without the cape he pulled from his pocket to save the Sport Boys from returning to their home league. The identity of this character was never released and all that was known was that the payment he made ended up being around $150,000. Really from a (Peruvian) movie.