The disgraceful Chiqui Tapia spoke about the disastrous 30-team tournament

The president of the Argentine Football Association (AFA), Claudio "Chiqui" Tapia, spoke on the streaming channel Gelatina about the controversial 30-team tournament.

According to the official, the current format of the First Division is not his fault: "If they're going to talk, let them all talk, don't blame me. How long have there been 30 teams? I didn't put the 30 teams. Have there been 30 teams since 2017? No. Last year the relegations were suspended, yes, but because the clubs came to propose it and we thought it was convenient."

"I take responsibility because I'm the president, but we always act accordingly and based on what the Argentine football officials propose to me, it doesn't come from me," he added.

Meanwhile, he denied that the elimination of relegations was to help Barracas Central, a club he was president of and where one of his sons plays: "They also said 'Barracas is going to be relegated,' last year it was 12/14 points above and they said we removed the relegations because of that. Lies."

What Tapia seems to not remember, or decides to omit, is that he himself said that the 30-team tournament was unfeasible. "There are no elite tournaments with the number of teams we have. In fact, if we look closely, it should have 18 teams," emphasized the AFA president in a 2019 interview with TyC Sports.

Moreover, as if that weren't enough, he had promised that by 2024, the number of teams in the First Division would be 22: "We commit that in five years this category will be as it should be, with 22 teams. We also think that the Superliga can't have the number of teams it has today and they are on that path, it should have 20 teams."

Where did the 30-team tournaments come from?

In 2015, the corrupt Julio Grondona left as his last legacy the first 30-team tournament, after suspending relegations and directly promoting 10 teams from the B Nacional. From there, and after his death, Tapia would assume the top position in the AFA and set out to reduce the number of teams.

In the first two seasons, the number of clubs didn't change, but starting from the 2017-2018 season, with the implementation of the Superliga format, it began to gradually reduce. In that tournament, the number dropped to 28, the following year to 26, and finally, in 2019-2020 to 24.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, in 2020 Chiqui Tapia's AFA decided to suspend relegations but maintain promotions, which caused the number to rise again. In theory, the measure was supposed to be for only one year, however, under the same pretext, Tapia decided to suspend them again in 2021, returning to 28 teams for 2022.

Coincidentally, one of the teams that was promoted in those years, with much controversy, to the First Division was Barracas Central, a club, as mentioned earlier, very related to Tapia.

After two years without relegations, the AFA finally re-enabled them, but the number of clubs would remain the same, as they decided to promote the same number of teams as those that were relegated. This would continue for another two years, with some team movements:

2022:

• Promotions: Belgrano and Instituto
• Relegations: Patronato and Aldosivi

2023:

• Promotions: Independiente Rivadavia and Deportivo Riestra
• Relegations: Arsenal and Colón

In 2024, Tapia finally decided to return to what he once swore to destroy: the 30-team tournament. For this, he decided once again to cancel relegations and keep promotions. With this embarrassing measure, Tigre, a club very related to Sergio Massa, and Sarmiento de Junín were saved from the B, and Aldosivi and San Martín de San Juan were promoted.