All the eyes of Argentine soccer will rest this afternoon, from 4:00 p.m., on the AFA property in Ezeiza, since the 28 assembly members of the first division will meet to discuss the modification of descentswith the possibility of altering the format of the championship that is currently underway.
The discussion will focus on the Articles of the Statute that regulate the regulations to fall to the First National (second category).
At the beginning of June, the AFA called an Extraordinary General Assembly with the focus on “statutory modifications” linked to articles 90 and 91. That means that the decreases of this 2023 could change, but also what is scheduled until 2029since that section provided how it would be done so that the Professional League passes from 28 teams to 22 clubs since the 2029 season.
“Thursday is the Assembly in which this issue will be defined. The truth is that the position that we have is always to accompany, yes we are going to defend the interests of Racing if it were as it is commenting. If there are two, let them be two on average.” declared the president of Racing, Victor Whitein radio statements.
“I think it is not serious, there is the Assembly, there will be a vote. If it has to come out this way, Racing’s position is the one I mentioned, but you also have to understand that the decision is not made by a leader. In this Assembly it will change if there is a majority, if there is no majority it will not change, ”he added.
The president of Racing, who in turn is general secretary of AFA, made it clear that the debate will be focused on see if remove one of the two drops which is defined by ttable of averages (the accumulated of the last three seasons played) or if the one governed by the Annual Table (the team that accumulates the fewest points in the active season).
“We had accepted in the previous Assembly to go down each year, I think that in 2029 we were at 22, it was the consensus that existed. This also takes me a bit by surprise, but the reality is that it will be an Assembly that will define it. As long as I have 28 teams, I don’t want to use the word large, medium or small teams, the majority will always prevail », he explained.
“Also as a manager, if I’m down, I’m going to say even if it’s a big club, If I were down, I would vote for something that would suit my club. The leaders are a corporation that at the last moment we thought individually. I would prefer that there be two on average, we will make the motion. You have to see if it is supported or not,” Blanco added on the subject.
The Statute indicates that there must be a “absolute majority (more than 50%)” so that the Assembly has a quorum and valid decisions can be made. “Unless otherwise stipulated in the Statutes, it is enough to obtain the majority (more than 50%) of the valid votes cast for a decision to be valid”, indicates Article 27 of the AFA regulations.
At the moment, Arsenal and Institute of Cordoba they would be losing the category due to the table of averages, while in the Annual Table a tiebreaker should be disputed between Banfield, Hurricane and Velez that they are equal in points, although we cannot lose sight of the fact that Union, Atlético Tucumán and Independiente they are just three points above those teams.
It is not a minor detail to clarify that the season has not yet reached the middle, since they remain to be played seven dates of the Professional League and in the second part of 2023 the League Cup.
At the end of 2021 it was resolved that just two years later they would start Eliminate teams from the first division to reach the number of 22 clubs. Initially, it was expected to reach that figure by 2026, but then it was decided to cushion the impact and gradually lower the figure with an extra decrease per year.
In 2023 it would start with 28, in 2024 with 27 and so on until reaching 22 six years later. Moreover, the Statute currently provides for the elimination of the table of averages from 2025.