Independiente players celebrate in a game against Racing Club.Getty Images
Nearly 200,000 fans, led by a social media influencer, come to the aid of a historic Argentine soccer team. Independiente de Avellaneda is penultimate in the first division, was abandoned by the president elected by its partners less than eight months ago and has debts of $20 million accumulated over decades. It takes a miracle. Led by Santiago Maratea, a young man known for launching solidarity rallies among his supporters on social networks, they have raised $3 million over the past two months to calm the fire.
Independiente is one of the biggest teams in Argentina, but its fame is a throwback to the last century. Between the 1970s and 1990s he won 24 tournaments, including seven Copa Libertadores, a tally unequaled by any other South American team, and he retains the nickname “King of Cups”. Home to great players like Ricardo Bochini, Sergio Kun Agüero or Diego Forlán, the past few years have been marked by bad deals: a stadium that has been half-finished for years, complaints about unpaid salaries and player transfers that didn’t work. This week’s news is a good example: the three million raised by his fans was used to pay part of a debt at América de México where they owed 5.7 million for the signing of a defender who only played two seasons in Argentina.
It’s only a quarter of the debt, but the fact that America accepted a payment plan was good news. The Mexican team had sued the Argentine in the Sports Arbitration Court at the end of 2021 and since Independiente could not pay the debt, FIFA sanctioned him by banning him from hiring new players. The penalty will be lifted after that first payment and Independiente, who have lost 8 of their 22 games this season and are third from bottom in the league, can strengthen for the next game.
An influencer to the rescue
Santiago Maratea signs a document at the offices of Argentine Club Atlético Independeinte on June 30.@Independiente (RR SS)
Independiente emerges from the experience of profound political change. Its almost eight-year-old president was removed last October. Hugo Moyano, the country’s most powerful trade unionist, who revived the team after relegation, failed in the end on charges of fraudulent management and money laundering. He was succeeded by the journalist Fabián Doman, who landed in the Independiente politics with unprecedented support: 70% of the membership votes with a record turnout. It was a political coup in the country: a trade unionist with links to Peronism was defeated by an outsider supported by the entire centre-right opposition. The move took just six months.
Doman resigned in mid-April as the team continued to lose. Without a coach or president and while a transitional commission reshuffled the leadership, a 30-year-old influencer jumped to the rescue.
Santiago Maratea has nothing to do with the world of football, let alone Independiente, but he knows how to raise money. Among his nearly four million Instagram followers, he had raised funds for foundations for volunteer firefighters, medical treatment for children or hiring a charter flight to enable 35 Argentine athletes to compete in the South American track and field event in Guayaquil in 2021. Maratea He made it a way of life: he could post a payment link with no more clarification than “I’ll tell you later” and the donations would be pouring down on him.
Independiente became his favorite cause: he raised more than 900 million Argentine pesos, about $3.4 million at the official exchange rate, in two months via a virtual payment platform. What did he get out of it? 5% of the collection. “Look, if they break their balls a lot, I’m going to start calling it my salary so they understand what we’re talking about with that 5%,” he complained in early May, while being criticized for teasing her took a section from the collection.
Between the three million from Maratea and one million from the club’s treasury, Independiente has announced that it has less than two million dollars left to pay off its debt to the Mexican team, which it will settle in three installments by next year. This Friday, Maratea announced that he had received an additional $40,000 in donations and that he will continue to lead the collection. He also suggested another dream: “If 100,000 Newell’s fans [un equipo popular de la ciudad de Rosario] Wager 16,000 pesos [unos 60 dólares]in a year they will buy Messi”.
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