Argentine Football Association (AFA) president Julio Grondona held an emergency meeting with the rest of the board members on Thursday in an effort to begin establishing a board of athletics. This is all a cause of the current crisis striking South American football where European clubs arrive and pillage their youth development programs and take the best of the best to the old continent.
"At the rate that this is going we could be heading back to the days of amateurism," said Grondona. One of his proposals is to try and find a way to keep these youngsters in Argentina instead of seeing them emigrate to Europe in tremendous numbers. In recent years, two of the brightest stars headed to Spain. A 13-year-old kid from Rosario named Lionel Messi and a 17-year-old called Sergio Agüero.
"What we need to do is hold these kids here as long as possible and try to sell them our rights," added the Argentine football czar, "we should not be seeing our stars play only when Real Madrid or Barcelona are on."
To many it was a long time coming, but it is possible that too little too late. Financially, the clubs on this end of the hemisphere cannot compete with the offers that seduce players to the other side of the pond. Add to that the fact that parents in many cases are promised work permits to be able to live in Europe in exchange for their child to be a part of their team.