Independiente Drifts into Decline as a Troubled Administration Ends Poorly

Independiente’s latest transfer window ended with the Avellaneda club selling its leading scorer, its best central defender and its attacking star, then replacing none of them. The move capped an administration that the source portrays as a painful failure surrounded by suspicions.

The story began on Oct. 2, 2022, when thousands of members queued through Avellaneda to vote at the club’s headquarters. Nearly 16,000 members took part in record attendance, after elections delayed by what the article calls a series of judicial maneuvers by the outgoing leadership. The Unidad CAI alliance, formed by Fabián Doman, Néstor Grindetti and Juan Marconi, was expected to have the broadest support and defeated the Moyano faction led by Hugo and Pablo Moyano and Héctor Yoyo Maldonado.

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Thanks for helping us with the votes, but we run this.

The celebrations did not last. Doman, described by the article as a well-known face with no other major achievement, resigned after six months when guarantees were lacking, possibly over a salary issue, though he never clearly explained his departure. Marconi, a journalist and outsider, lasted another eight months. The article says insiders quickly made clear that they, rather than him, would control the club. Grindetti, then mayor of Lanús and a candidate for governor of Buenos Aires for Juntos por el Cambio, assumed the presidency after Doman’s resignation and said the role had landed on him unexpectedly.

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It landed on me like a hairy gift.

Nearly four years after the election that raised supporters’ hopes, the article describes a management marked by serious mistakes and increasingly opaque decisions. With a match approaching, Independiente sold Ávalos, Lomónaco and Chilean forward Gutiérrez after the tournament had started. The sales brought in money to cover debts, including unpaid transfer installments, but the club closed the market without adding a single player.

The announcement of Ávalos’s move to Olimpia of Paraguay illustrated the financial pressure. Independiente said the deal included full payment of the third installment and part of the fourth and final installment owed for the transfer of Zabala. The article presents the sales as a sporting and administrative breakdown rather than a planned rebuilding effort.

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The deal includes the full cancellation of the third installment and a percentage of the fourth and final installment corresponding to the transfer of Zabala.