In the microclimate of social networks, an area that barely moves a hundred people but claims to be representative of a whole, Víctor Blanco often becomes an easy meme: he goes from statesman to ineffective in a matter of minutes. However, in the most complex and zigzagging Argentine soccer, the president of Racing managed over time to be defined by derivatives of another word: cunning.
Because if there is something that Blanco has done well since he took over at Racing almost a decade ago, it is getting out of uncomfortable situations. On Friday night, when that microclimate began to point to him because the inmate of the barra brava had caused the Government of the province of Buenos Aires to decide to close the doors of the Cylinder, Blanco reversed it, a little because of his efforts, and another little for your contacts.
Several central actors in national politics acted in this confused round trip. And if the minister Sergio Berni –tired of the expansion by the club and knowing the confrontations to the shots on Tuesday night in Villa Corina, the neighborhood of Los pibes de Racing– had decided that it would be played behind closed doors, the one that appeared in the negotiations to open them again was the mayor of Avellaneda, Jorge Ferraresi.
According to whoever was consulted, Ferraresi’s appearance was due to a call from Blanco or one from Máximo Kirchner. With both of them, Blanco maintains a relationship that improves year after year. After some short circuits typical of tensions with the municipality, he sealed his bond with the municipal chief when Racing gave the stadium an act by Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. Ferraresi had asked him in a context that he still values today: it was 2017, Mauricio Macri governed the Nation and María Eugenia Vidal in the Province, and Blanco obtained a request that came from the purest of Kirchnerism.
With Máximo, the relationship is mediated not only by the political aspect, but by the football or passion aspect. At Blanco’s worst moment as head of the club, a few months after the departure of Diego Milito as technical secretary, the national deputy of the Frente de Todos appeared on the radio program Pasadon Cosas to support him: “I think the Blanco administration has been more than correct in Racing”, he sentenced, after giving some examples of why he expected that. Almost at the same time, but privately, Blanco had received the support of the Buenos Aires head of government and presidential candidate, Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, another Racing fan like Máximo. In all this time, Blanco never showed his cards too much, which could have prevented him from certain binary ties related to politics.
That same strategy led to the Argentine Football Association. Never far from President Claudio “Chiqui” Tapia, but also never far from occasional adversaries like Marcelo Tinelli or Rodolfo D’Onofrio, Blanco balanced when everything was war. In times of peace and empowered Tapia, that has another value.
There are still those who claim that Racing’s participation in the Al Ain International Cup, which they finally beat Boca in Abu Dhabi, is part of Blanco’s influence at the AFA table. And although there will always be doubt or intentionality, what is clear is that the president of Racing took advantage of that trip so that Racing could position itself in the powerful and increasingly coveted Arab circle. That is why he met with Aref Hamad Al Awani, general secretary of the Abu Dhabi Sports Council, and Abdulla Naser Al jneibi, vice president of the United Arab Emirates Football Association and president of the UAE Pro League. The objective was to generate new income for the club.
In that aspect, the economic income, Racing can boast of being organized like almost no other club. He sells well – Alcaraz’s recent transfer to the Premier League validates this – and his latest balances showed a surplus. “The only real problem in the club is the bar,” they confide to PROFILE. But it is not only that: the person in charge of Security at the club, Roberto Torres, has too many links with a sector of the violent who, once again, dispute control of an increasingly sought-after platform. In this item of his management, Blanco cannot show any positive results.
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