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Political football: Riquelme and Maradona carry old feud into Boca election
BUENOS AIRES, Dec 7, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Diego Maradona and Juan Roman
Riquelme are back in the heart of the battle at their former club Boca
Juniors, but this weekend they are playing political football.
Riquelme’s decision to join the opposition ticket in the election of the
club board has added fuel to a heated campaign and reopened a feud with
Maradona who aimed a broadside at his former team-mate.
The vote on Sunday is also shaping as a rematch of the recent Argentine
presidential election.
The 80,000 Boca members can vote at the club’s famous Bonbonera stadium on
Sunday in a ballot that could bring a second defeat for Mauricio Macri in
less than two months.
Macri was president of Boca from 1995 to 2006 and used that as a
springboard to national political success.
He became president of Argentina in 2015 at the head of his centre-right
Cambiemos party. But his rule will end on December 10.
He was booted out of office in a national election on October 27, beaten by
another Buenos Aires politician Alberto Fernandez, a centre-left candidate.
Boca has been run for the last eight years by Macri’s long-time ally Daniel
Anglici, backed by Cambiemos members on the board.
The Macri faction’s candidate this time is Christian Gribaudo a former
national deputy. His main challenger is a former Macri protege Jorge Amor
Ameal, club president from 2008-11.
Riquelme, 41, is running with Ameal as candidate for the position of second
vice-president.
Riquelme made his Boca debut in 1996 and soon replaced Maradona, who had
returned to the club to finish his career. Riquelme also had a fractious
relationship with Macri and feuded with Anglici.
Unlike Maradona, who won little at the club, Riquelme is associated with
Boca’s greatest success.
The club’s last major international trophies came in 2007, when Riquelme
scored three goals in a 5-0 aggregate win over Gremio in the Libertadores Cup
final.
That was the club’s sixth victory in the competition, the last three with
Riquelme in the team. He also led them to their last Intercontinental Cup
victory in 2000.
Boca reached the Libertadores final again last year only to lose to hated
rivals River Plate in a controversial final. River also eliminated Boca in
this year’s semi-finals.
Coming close only to lose to their neighbours seems to have hurt deeply.
“I think it’s time to help my club, these last few years were the worst,”
Riquelme told America TV.
When fans at the Bombonera chanted “Riqueeelme, Riqueeelme,” as the club
drew 1-1 with Argentino Juniors last Saturday it was read as an electoral
signal.
Riquelme made it clear that he thought the vote had a wider political
significance: “The whole country knows that we have to win.”
Attempts to cash in on Riquelme’s popularity in the election have been
blocked.
A photo showing his back, wearing the Boca number 10, was banned from the
ballot paper. The club has warned that anyone wearing a Riquelme t-shirt on
Sunday will not be allowed to vote.
Maradona, recently returned to Argentina to coach Gimnasia in nearby La
Plata and the owner of a box at the Bombonera, reacted with hostility to
Riquelme’s candidacy.
Riquelme snubbed Maradona, Argentina’s coach, by refusing to come out of
retirement for the 2010 World Cup, making it clear the refusal was personal.
“We don’t agree much,” Riquelme said in late 2009. “My codes are not his
and it’s clear that we can’t work together.”
Maradona warned that electing Riquelme would mean Daniel Passarella coming
in as Boca coach.
“We don’t want a Passarella in Boca and if Riquelme wins, hold on,”
Maradona said.
Passarella, a former River star who was the manager who dropped Maradona
from the Argentina team, had a disastrous stint running Boca from 2009 to
2013 which ended in relegation.
A third Argentine icon Gabriel Batistuta is a more peripheral figure in the
election, as he is in Boca history.
‘Batigol’ played just 30 games for the club in 1990-91 and is acting as a
consultant to a third candidate Jose Beraldi.
“It’s an offer I’ve been waiting for,” said Batistuta adding that “politics
don’t interest me.”
BSS/AFP/GMR/0931 hrs