"With my old man, this wouldn't have happened," Humberto Grondona said after Gerardo Martino quit as Argentina coach 10 days after captain Lionel Messi announced his retirement from international football.
The legacy of late Argentine Football Association (AFA) strongman Julio Grondona, who ran the governing body like a fiefdom, is a power vacuum, empty coffers and a lack of support for the national teams.
Martino resigned on Tuesday, fed up with the AFA, whose clubs have denied the under-23 Olympic team their players, something former under-20s coach Humberto Grondona believes could not have happened under his father, who died in 2014.
Messi complained of a lack of AFA support in the United States last month, where Martino's senior team lost a second successive Copa America final in 12 months to Chile on penalties.
"Once again waiting in a plane to get to our destination, what a disaster those at the AFA are, my God," Messi said in the last post on his Instagram account of Argentina's long flights crisscrossing the U.S. during the tournament.
"I would like the AFA to give the national team what it needs, it's a world power," he told reporters of directors more interested in shopping malls than team arrangements.
"We have to change, not just for us (seniors) but also those coming up behind," he added, referring to the junior teams, including the under-23 side due to play at the Rio Games in August.
TACTICAL ERRORS
Martino quit after being unable to start training on Monday with an Olympic squad of fewer than 10 players and was quoted as telling an AFA director he was leaving because "I've lost my appetite, if I carried on I'd be harming the national team."
This stands in contrast to this year's 30th anniversary of Argentina's second World Cup victory, with media celebrating the team coached by Carlos Bilardo and captained by Diego Maradona.
The team arrived in Mexico under a cloud after poor warm-up results and calls from the government to sack Bilardo but Julio Grondona stood his ground and backed his chosen coach.
Argentina last won a major trophy at the Copa America in 1993, apart from two Olympic gold medals in 2004 and 2008.
Martino, who according to media reports has not been paid for more than six months, lost only three matches and won 19 of the 29 he presided over but got his tactics wrong in two finals against Chile, both 0-0 draws that Argentina lost in shootouts.
Julio Olarticoechea, a member of the 1986 World Cup-winning team who has been coaching the under-20s on an interim basis, would take over the Olympic squad, Racing Club president and AFA board member Victor Blanco told reporters.
Atletico Madrid coach and former Argentina captain Diego Simeone is the fan and media favourite to take over the senior side in qualifiers for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
The AFA, whose efforts at a first presidential election in 35 years ended in farce in 2015 with 76 ballots cast by 75 delegates, has come under government scrutiny over TV revenue irregularities and world body FIFA is looking at stepping in to oversee a new election.Argentina coaches since 1973Cesar Luis Menotti 1973-82. Won the World Cup in Buenos Aires in 1978 and quit after failing to retain the title in Spain in 1982.Carlos Bilardo 1983-1990. Won the World Cup in 1986 in Mexico, reached the final in 1990 in Italy.Alfio Basile 1990-1994. Won the Copa America in 1991 and 1993 but resigned after second-round elimination at the 1994 World Cup in the United States where Diego Maradona was kicked out for doping.Daniel Passarella 1994-98. Won the Olympic silver medal at the 1996 Atlanta Games and reached the 1998 World Cup quarter-finals in France where the team lost to the Netherlands.Marcelo Bielsa 1998-2004. Argentina were favourites to win the first World Cup held in Asia but got knocked out in the group phase. Was given a second term in charge, reached the Copa America final in Peru in 2004, losing to Brazil on penalties and quit after winning the gold medal at the Athens Olympics.Jose Pekerman 2004-06. Having steered Argentina to three world under-20 titles between 1995 and 2001, took charge of the senior team and led them to the quarter-finals of the World Cup in Germany where they lost on penalties to the hosts.Basile 2006-08. In his second term in charge, reached the 2007 Copa America final in Venezuela where Argentina lost to Brazil but resigned after Argentina's first ever defeat to Chile in a World Cup qualifier.Diego Maradona 2008-10. Argentina scraped into the World Cup finals in South Africa where they were crushed 4-0 by Germany in the quarter-finals and Maradona was refused a new contract.Sergio Batista 2010-11. A member of the 1986 world title-winning side, Batista won Argentina's second Olympic gold medal in Beijing in 2008 but his spell in charge of the senior team ended with quarter-final defeat on penalties to Uruguay in the Copa America on home soil.Alejandro Sabella 2011-14. Steered Argentina to the World Cup final in Brazil where they lost to Germany 1-0 after extra time at the Maracana.Gerardo Martino 2014-16. Having led Paraguay to the 2011 Copa America final, also steered Argentina to successive finals in Chile in 2015 and the United States in 2016 but lost both on penalties to Chile.
Thursday, June 04, 2026
