Gerardo Tata Martino has quit as the coach of the Argentine national team less than ten days after losing the Copa America final against Chile. Martino, who had initially pledged to carry on with the national team has abruptly quit from his post due to the ongoing chaos in the Argentine Football Association (AFA).
The AFA released a statement on their website confirming the same - “The national team's technical team have decided to hand in their resignation on this day [Tuesday],". It is reported by Goal.com that there are many reasons behind Tata’s decision which include the failure of AFA, failure to win silverware and the retirement of Lionel Messi.
The Argentine Football Association have been under the hammer for many apparent scandals in the recent years. Meanwhile, FIFA and CONMEBOL have sent a ‘normalization committee’ to Buenos Aires to oversee the running of the AFA. This apparent breakdown of the governing body of the national team is also claimed to be the reason behind the rumoured retirements of many players including Lionel Messi.
The attempt to elect a president late in 2016 ended with a 38-38 tie between Luis Segura and Marcelo Tinelli despite having 75 club directors voting for the post. There was also a scandal involving the destination of Government funds intended for TV rights for the Primera Division in Argentina which could have led to even severe penalties for the South Americans.
The judge handling with the issue Servini de Cubria was not happy with FIFA’s presence. Had Argentine Federal judge Servini de Cubria decided to interfere with FIFA’s presence, the international body could have considered it as government’s involvement in FIFA affair and banned the country’s clubs as well as national teams from participating from international competitions for an unspecified period of time.
Presently, The AFA is a body with no formal President with powers. The chaos within the body has also lead to the possibility of Argentina not having a team ready for the Olympics in Rio. Argentine Olympic Committee (COA) president Gerardo Werthein said on Tuesday that
“Today, there’s a 50 percent chance Argentina won’t present its men’s football team at the Olympic Games; It has something to do with what’s happening at the AFA. They haven’t spoken to us for 20 months”.
Ex-Coach Tata Martino did not even have 11 players to start his preparatory campaign before the games in Rio. It is this failure from the governing body that seems to have led Tata Martino into taking his decision.
