The Argentine Football Federation (AFA) claimed a judicial win over President Javier Milei on Monday after a court temporarily suspended the effects of a presidential decree establishing a private sports corporations model (SAD for their Spanish acronym). The decision is the latest, but not the last, in the fight about running national football: maintaining the country’s current system of nonprofit civil associations or transitioning to SADs.

Judge Elpidio Portocarrero, who heads the Mercedes Federal Court in Buenos Aires Province, upheld an injunction petitioned by AFA to challenge two articles in Milei’s December 2023 mega-decree which allowed SADs to compete in Argentina’s top division. The injunction will stand until a final ruling is issued.

In his ruling, the judge claims the mega-decree articles “negatively affect the status of [sports clubs]”, preventing them from functioning as intended through the “impositions on their members through acts of the Executive branch.”

The AFA has been fighting against SADs since Milei announced the idea during the 2023 presidential campaign. The case, which is set to affect clubs across the country and every sport, fell to Portocarrero’s jurisdiction after the Salto Football League from the nearby city of the same name required a similar injunction.

Argentine football clubs cannot be private sports corporations if they want to be part of AFA, per Article 10 of its membership statute, which requires them to be non-profit civil associations. 

In November 2023, an AFA vote showed that an overwhelming majority of members were against the change. Additionally, many Argentine clubs would have to change their bylaws to switch to the private model, requiring a three-quarters supermajority.

FIFA, football’s world governing body, has no regulations against privately-owned clubs but rejects government intervention in its member federations, warning Brazil it could miss the next World Cup after its football president was ousted last year.

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