In the first meeting of the year of the Executive Committee of the Professional League, held this Wednesday in Puerto Madero, the clubs moved forward with a key measure ahead of the start of the 2026 Apertura Tournament: the approval of the motion to apply an amnesty to sanctioned players. The proposal will now be sent to the Disciplinary Tribunal of the AFA, the only body with the authority to put it into effect.
According to reports, the initiative contemplates the cancellation of sanctions with no limit on the number of matches and would cover all categories under AFA's umbrella, which means that it would have an impact both on the Professional League and on the rest of the divisions.
If it is confirmed, several teams would benefit at the start of the championship, among them the most prominent is Estudiantes de La Plata, which, after the sanction for the corridor with their backs to Rosario Central, could recover Fernando Muslera, Santiago Núñez, Tiago Palacios, Facundo Farías, Leandro González Pírez, Santiago Arzamendia, Edwin Cetré, Ezequiel Piovi and Mikel Amondarain (Ed. note: Román Gómez and Cristián Median were also sanctioned, but they left for Bahía and Botafogo, respectively).
Estudiantes recuperaría varios jugadores en caso de que se aprueba la amnistía
The request for amnesty arose from the clubs themselves. This is how Nicolás Russo, president of Lanús, explained it, who clarified that the Committee can't solve it directly. "The Disciplinary Tribunal was asked to make a decision. It doesn't depend on the directors, but on the tribunal", he stated, and he avoided specifying which institution formally promoted the proposal. The expectation is that the decision will arrive in the coming hours, with the tournament already about to begin.
In the same conclave, the Executive Committee approved the official regulations of the Apertura and Clausura Tournaments, in addition to reviewing organizational matters and the institutional situation of the clubs in the run-up to the start of the competition.
También se aprobó el reglamento del Apertura y Clausura
In addition, it was confirmed that the transfer window of Argentine soccer will close on January 27 at 5 p.m. From that date, the clubs will be able to sign players until two days after the end of the first round of the Apertura, which will begin this Thursday the 22nd and will run until Sunday the 25th. Meanwhile, the extra quota until March 31 for each player transferred or loaned abroad will also be maintained.
Finally, a new provision promoted by AFA was ratified to not draft to the youth national teams players who go abroad under parental authority. The measure, which arose after the case of Lucas Scarnato at River, seeks to organize the training process and prevent premature departures that affect the sporting development of youth players and the training clubs.
