Argentine Football Association (AFA) treasurer Pablo Toviggino accused Estudiantes de La Plata president Juan Sebastián Verón of lying to club members about the club’s investment deal with American business magnate Foster Gillett on Wednesday. 

The deal, whose terms have been jealously guarded by the club, has been criticized as a move towards making Estudiantes a private sporting corporation, the club model President Javier Milei has been seeking to replace Argentina’s beloved fan-owned associations with.

The club announced its partnership with Gillett in December, with an unanimous decision by the board of directors.

Estudiantes has not confirmed the value or duration of the deal, but several local outlets have reported that it is valued at US$120 million. Critics have pointed out that it remains unclear how Gillett would recoup his investment and what’s at stake if any potential conditions are not met. Club members are yet to vote on the agreement, with Estudiantes announcing a members assembly at some point in 2025.

‘You’re not transforming anything’

“It’d be good if you explained to club members […] that the only thing you’re doing is acquiring a monstrous debt that can only be guaranteed with Estudiantes’ assets,” Toviggino wrote to Verón on X.

Toviggino also jibed that the Estudiantes president was living in Miami so his “brain can defrost.”

“You’re not transforming Argentine football’s management models or inventing anything, Foster Gillett isn’t a commercial partner, a sporting director or a virtuous benefactor, as you want to paint him,” Toviggino wrote. “He’s simply a money lender who won’t be able to acquire the club because Argentine law forbids it.”

During a streaming session, Verón said that the deal involves the completion and expansion of Estudiantes’ José Luis Hirschi stadium and other infrastructure improvements, along with investments in the professional football squad. The club is already seeing the effects of the deal, with Gillett paying Boca’s Cristian Medina US$15 million release clause to join Estudiantes.

‘Progress requires investment’

According to journalist Marcelo Gantman, one of Argentina’s top football financing experts, the deal could prove revolutionary — provided terms are as Verón has publicised them.

“The administration thinks the club has reached a development ceiling with the current income scheme,” he said. “They think the only way to keep making progress requires external investment, and the arrival of Foster Gillett is an opportunity to do so.”

Gantman admits the type of investment is similar to that of a possible private sports corporation (known as a SAD in Argentina), but insists that from the information made available so far, the contract does not require the club to modify its statutes to become a SAD or change its legal profile.

“It’s quite unique compared with what usually happens in Argentine football,” Gantman said. “Estudiantes is allegedly not going to hand over the management of footballing structures, so if that were to happen it would be something unprecedented.”

Blazing a trail?

The AFA doesn’t allow its member clubs to be private corporations. Its statutes say they can only be non-profit civil associations. Javier Milei’s December 2023 mega decree made the ban illegal, although the effects have been temporarily suspended after the Mercedes Federal Court in Buenos Aires Province upheld an injunction filed by AFA, challenging two articles, in September 2024.

Verón criticized AFA’s position on the privately owned sports corporation model during the streaming session on Monday. 

“With that whole ‘clubs are owned by the members’ discourse, they still send you to play a cup final at Santiago del Estero and forget about fans,” he said. AFA’s recent practice of scheduling matches at stadiums hundreds of kilometers from both sides’ hometowns has angered supporters.

“We’re blazing a trail so that every club can manage and generate resources in a different way. We don’t have to play along with AFA and its business. We don’t need their approval.”