Under Grondona, changes in Argentine soccer remain unlikely

Julio Grondona announced last month that he will run for a next consecutive term at the helm of Argentina's Football Association (AFA), clocking a potential 36 years in a row as president. The elections are due to take place in October. Argentina's elimination from the Copa America as host might -- under other circumstances -- trigger some sort of shake up. But the word from AFA is that there will be no changes to the structure of the national squad's leadership.

Grondona has been practically unopposed for as long as he's been in power. A few years back Carlos Bilardo, a man who won a World Cup as manager for Argentina and subsequently turned his hand to politics, announced he would take on board the task of running against Grondona. With a mixture of incredulity and admiration, some asked whether he truly believed this was possible. Yeah, yeah he replied in his characteristic speeded drawl, Julio can be toppled.

Cut to Bilardo and Don Julio unveiling Diego Maradona as manager of the national squad, with Bilardo named as Coordinator of Football under a new structure which saw him promoted to a position he remains in to this day. The two old men can be spotted now and again, sharing a personal conversation which has spanned decades, with a familiarity that betrays no friction.

It is this way of dealing with adversaries, bringing them under his wing and including them in the heart of the family which has worked so well for Grondona. Not just at home, but in the world body of which he is currently treasurer and a senior member of the Executive Committee: FIFA.

In Argentina, Grondona has walked his slow, steady, heavy-footed way without ever budging. Dictatorships and left-wing populism, hyperinflation and currency collapses, organized violent thugs or multimedia empires listed in the stock exchange -- it makes no difference to him. If he can't beat them or join them he simply overrules them. One thing is for sure, he remains at the helm, the only constant in an ever changing society.

Why it is that power is so efficiently held by some is not an easy question to answer. There are many situations in which submission is the most effective form of survival, and thus many club chairmen in Argentina back Grondona through fear of extinction. But arguably there is something more subtle at play; from many perspectives Grondona's reign, both domestically and internationally, has worked.

"When I took office all these cabinets were empty" he boasted to me once, pointing to the many trophies adorning his office. It was an interview about youth development policies, which coincided with his appointment of Sergio "Checho" Batista as manager of the youth divisions. I asked him about this decision, which was not obvious given Batista did not have much of a track record as manager of either youth or adult teams.

But the Batista family do. Checho's father was instrumental in the creation of a kiddy-academy, Club Parque, which has gone on to develop some of the most coveted professionals the country has exported over the past generation. Checho's brother Bocha continues to be very involved in Club Parque, and is studiously serious in the field of child and adolescent development. At that point, it seemed a reasonable enough appointment -- at the very least worth a try.

Despite winning Olympic Gold in his first few months of tenure, Batista saw his much coveted rise to the main team (or the adult squad as we refer to it in Argentina) hampered by the surprise appointment of Diego Maradona. "They asked me for Diego ... I gave them Diego," Grondona would later mumble, like a grandfather who can never keep the kids happy.

And so it was that after Maradona's departure (his contract expired; Grondona always boasts that he has never sacked a manager) Batista was given the main job. By now, however, it should have become clear that having failed to even qualify for important youth tournaments, including the Olympics, Batista was at the very least not an obvious choice.

His first game in the post-Maradona era was a friendly against Ireland, with a squad in which outspokenly pro-Maradona Carlos Tevez was not included. Tevez made a point of arriving late one night at the training camp, hogging the cameras with an impromptu news conference, thus creating a ripple through the inner workings of the squad which remains to this day. Again excluded from some internationals earlier this year, the Tevez issue became publicly discussed until he was finally in the squad, seemingly as a sign that Batista was yielding to outside pressure. An internal mini-sopa opera which again detracted attention from the main issues as recently as Monday when AFA made its first public statement following elimination. Humberto Grondona, Don Julio's son and director of national squads, confirmed Batista will continue in his job albeit with a list of conditions which include clarifying Tevez's role.

In an ideal world, the manager could name the squad according to assessment of the next fixture as he saw fit. Also, the manager could find the circumstances in which to encourage his players to thrive as a whole, while maximizing the individual potential of each one. In this respect the Lionel Messi factor cannot be underestimated. Increasingly, the sense that team-Argentina is not a conducive environment for Messi to excel in, lies at the heart of the structure of the national squads. Batista was widely perceived as someone who would build the team around Messi, and this was crucial to his appointment.

But tactical drawings are only one part of the equation. In terms of the group psychology, and the sense of shared objectives, Batista has not proved himself an adequate leader. Coupled with the sense of crisis in Argentina's soccer generally (violence, bankruptcy, contractual disputes with main media players and 6 big clubs relegated to the lower divisions are but a handful of illustrations), the mood is set for a major change.

Apparently Don Julio hasn't so much as broken a sweat over all this. Worried? He said to me once when I asked him about a poor performance on the international stage, "I worry if my grandchildren are sick, or if my mother dies." This can't worry me. Despite his imposing physical presence -- he is a very tall man, who used to be heavier, and has an almost comical blasé way of speaking as if delivering a script from an Italian 1950s movie -- he was devoted to his mother who died aged 102 last year. Psychoanalytically speaking, it's possible he truly doesn't care anymore about anything. Asked how he would like to be remembered on a Cordoba radio station last week he said "Why should I mind? Its not as if Im going to be around to know about it."

Yet he could well be around for some time still. And if no one steps in to seriously challenge his tenure, Don Julio's non-negligible contribution to the world's favorite game could be enhanced by a campaign gesture -- he could appoint a serious manager, and at least be seen to attempt to steer the sinking ship that is Argentina's Association Football to calmer waters.