The Argentine Football Association has gone mad

The Argentine Football Association (AFA) needs to calm down with its ridiculous plans to brins g back one of its club giants into the first division. Last season, River Plate, which is known as one of the most decorative soccer clubs in Argentina, was relegated to the Nacional B.

Since 1983, AFA has been using a very complicated system to determine who gets relegated from the Primera A. It uses a very complicated point system based on an average of loses and victories, plus goals scored and so on.

Many soccer analysts have criticize AFA for creating such a difficult system to protect the high spending teams like Boca Juniors and River Plate. Soccer analysts argue by saying that many of the promoted teams from the Nacional B would quickly fall victims to relegation do to the complicated system. Teams that managed to be around in the Primera A would survive, because their percentage was stabilized.

Whatever the argument, the system proved to be a huge back fire for River Plate. In the past seasons, River Plate’s points dropped immensely and caused the team to be put in a two-leg relegation playoff with a Nacional B team, Belgrano de Córdoba. In the end, River Plate lost with an aggregate of 3-1 and was relegated for the first time in its history.

Now, AFA is proposing a new league format that includes River Plate in its map. It’s pretty sickening that AFA would allow River Plate to come back to the first division without seeing if the club can do it on its own. Also, they are proposing this new league format without even waiting a year of River Plate’s relegation. Ridiculous!

Of course, this new league format will promote many more teams. I guess the plan is to have two groups of 18 teams. That means that 16 teams from the Nacional B are going to move up in addition to the 20 teams that are already in the Primera A. River Plate, for goodness sakes, better rank among the top 16 at the end of next season! God knows what would happen if they didn’t rank in the top 16!

This new league format for the Primera A has been proposed and most clubs have already approved. The final decision will come on October 18^th. The spokesman of AFA, Ernesto Cherquis, has stated that if the new format is approved in October, everything will be ready for 2012-2013.

To me that sounds like BS! Yes, B teams will get a chance to become first division champions, but 36 teams in one division! That’s crazy!

I guess the plan is to have Boca Juniors and River Plate in separate groups. However, they will face each other in order to keep the Argentine ultra-classic available for Argentine soccer fans.

Again, BS! Why is AFA designing the league around those two teams?

I think that AFA should stick to traditional soccer league format of 20 teams. Everyone else in the world does! What about the Nacional B? Are the C division teams moving up?

I think that it’s obvious that AFA wants its two top teams in the first division. I think that the obviousness of its desperate move is ridiculous, and the move could make AFA a laughing stock of soccer leagues. AFA should let River Plate prove itself instead of blowing smoke up their…!

JL Herrera @soccerexaminer