«If you're going to fake a regulation, at least do it properly,» any IT expert not working in Viamonte would say.
Club Ferro Carril Oeste expresses its energetic repudiation of the media and digital attacks against the Argentine Football Association (AFA), its president, Claudio 'Chiqui' Tapia, and the Executive Committee.
The harassment of its democratically elected leadership…
But the best came later.
The disciplinary reprisal was only the first act.
Of course, except when the fight consists of punishing a club for not wanting to join an improvised tribute to justify a 'designated' championship for Rosario Central.
All of this happens while the president of the AFA remains under fire for his closeness to a financial firm investigated for alleged money laundering, while the designation of the champion has generated a cross-sectional rejection, both inside and outside of football.
After the historic 'backing' from Estudiantes de La Plata in the hallway to the 'designated' champion Rosario Central, the Disciplinary Tribunal—that notary office on Viamonte that signs whatever it needs to whenever it needs to—applied an unprecedented sanction: it suspended the eleven starting players for two matches and Juan Sebastián Verón for six months from 'any activity related to football'.
A disproportionate, pedagogical, and above all disciplinary punishment.
His response—turning his back in a hallway that didn't exist by regulation—was punished as if he had set fire to the AFA's headquarters.
The second was the launch of the 'dry necks' operation: a chain of identical communiqués, published simultaneously by clubs from the lower divisions and leagues from the Federal Council, as if they had all been struck by inspiration at the same time to express their 'firm and categorical support' for President Claudio Tapia and Treasurer Pablo Toviggino.
The scene was so blatantly coordinated that a model message to copy and paste even circulated.
The AFA decided to show who's boss, even if that meant inventing rules on the fly, faking a PDF, and applying a regulation it had never used before.
And Verón, who dared to think for himself, was disqualified as if he had committed a crime against leadership.
The message is clear: either you look at the 'designated' champion or you look at the wall for six months.
Thus, among extravagant sanctions, tampered PDFs, and 'dry neck' communiqués sprouting like mushrooms, the AFA solidifies its style: a mix of football authoritarianism, bad institutional practice, and permanent tragicomedy.
The tournament is still played on the pitch, but the real power—no one doubts it anymore—is decided in the offices, in the hallways… and on those cell phones where 'Chiqui' waits for them to copy and paste his message of the day.
Marcelo Achile, president of Defensores de Belgrano, rallied the crowd as if he were launching his candidacy: 'Whatever happens, we will back Tapia, Toviggino, and ourselves'.
Applause, emotion, and the epic of resistance… against an enemy that no one quite manages to identify, but which is always useful for unifying the ranks.
Tapia, absent during the ceremony, already had his reply ready: 'The fights happen inside, face to face'.
Buenos Aires, November 27, 2025 – Total News Agency-TNA- The Argentine Football Association (AFA) gave another masterclass in how to turn a minor episode into an exercise in excessive power.
Because if the manual talks about disciplining, then you have to discipline in earnest.
While support messages for 'Chiqui' were exploding on social networks, the atmosphere at the Alumni awards was almost like a campaign rally.
The metadata sang louder than an indignant fan: the file was created on November 23 at 7:21 PM with AdobePDFMaker.
It's no surprise they sought to protect themselves: 'Chiqui' has been losing fans, leaders… and patience.
In this climate, Estudiantes was the only major club that dared to challenge the manual of the perfectly obedient.
Circular '6625', which supposedly existed since February, miraculously came to life on the very same day that Estudiantes turned its back.
