Former Manchester United and Chelsea star Juan Sebastian Veron has been banned from football for six months after his players turned their backs on the winners of a newly-created trophy in a ‘reverse guard of honour’.
Veron is the president of Argentinean side Estudiantes, whose players made the gesture in protest at the creation of the new title in the middle of the season.
There are eight trophies available for teams in the Argentinean top flight this season, with campaigns made up of two halves – the Apeture and Clausura (opening and closing) phases, which are both finished with a knockout stage.
But debuting this season is a new honour for the 30 teams who contest the Argentina Liga Profesional that has come under scrutiny.
Earlier this month, the Argentine Football Association (AFA) decided to award the title based on points garnered between both the Apeture and Clausura tournaments, which handed the trophy to Rosario Central.
The team is the current home of former Man United star Angel Di Maria, who returned to his boyhood club this summer, one year after he was deterred from his hero’s return by a slew of death threats. Di Maria was on hand to collect the trophy in a private ceremony, alongside the club’s president and vice-president, and goalkeeper Jorge Broun.
Juan Sebastian Veron has been handed a lengthy sanction in the wake of a scandal brewing in Argentinean football
The former Manchester United star is the club president of Estudiantes, who protested Rosario Central’s title with a reverse guard of honour
But reception to the new title has not been without controversy, and when Rosario arrived on the pitch ahead of their last-16 Clausura clash against Estudiantes last weekend, the team were subject to a frosty welcome.
Rather than see out the traditional guard of honour, the players did so before turning their backs on the oncoming team in a display of defiance over the late change.
The act of protest was swiftly punished by the AFA, who handed out lengthy bans to a number of the clubs players and senior figures in the wake of ‘Pasillogate’, named for the guard of honour gesture in Spanish.
Veron, who serves as the club’s president 9 years after re-joining his boyhood team for the final season of his playing career, was given a six-month ban from sporting functions.
The 11 players on the pitch were all given two-match bans for them to serve during the next tournament, and captain Santiago Nunez has been banned from serving as the on-field captain for the next three months.
The Argentina international has been a fierce critic of AFA president Chiqui Tapia, and in the wake of his sanction, his wife Valentina Martin was quick to share her disgust on social media.
Insinuating that the hierarchy feared Veron’s position in the Argentine game, she hit out at the ‘mafiosos of Argentine football’ and called for a ‘strike’ to ‘put an end to this mafia’.
Estudiantes shared a statement backing their president, stressing that he still had the Board of Directors’ ‘absolute support’, as did the players.
Angel Di Maria’s team were handed the title in a behind-closed-doors ceremony this month
Veron’s wife Valentina hit out at the ‘mafiosos’ at the heart of the sport in Argentina in the wake of her husband’s ban
In the wake of the reverse guard of honour, Estudiantes went on to win the tie 1-0.
When asked about the controversial gesture, Di Maria preferred not to be drawn on the subject.
‘It’s their business,’ the former Paris Saint-Germain star said. ‘They built the guard of honour anyway.
‘One of the guys told us they were going to do that, and that’s fine. It’s their business. We went in the way we were supposed to, and that’s that.’
