President Javier Milei has once again sided with football team Estudiantes de La Plata after its players were ordered to salute rivals Rosario Central, who had controversially been awarded a newly-created trophy.

His support comes amid an ongoing dispute between the president and the Argentine Football Association (AFA) over whether to allow the country’s football clubs to become private sporting corporations, known in Spanish as SADs. 

Estudiantes was the only club to fully back Milei’s plans to transition towards the SAD model.

On Thursday, the AFA announced that Rosario Central, which had finished first in the annual table, would be crowned as 2025 Liga Profesional champions. 

It was a big and sudden change to the tournament’s rules: the annual table, which aggregates points from the first and second semester tournaments, has not awarded trophies for several seasons. It has only been used to determine which clubs have earned a spot in international competitions and which will be relegated.

Fans and journalists questioned the decision, which was seen........

© Buenos Aires Herald