Relegated River Plate appoint Almeyda
Reuters - Tuesday 28 June 2011, 01:42
BUENOS AIRES - Former Argentina
midfielder Matias Almeyda will be relegated River Plate's coach
in the Nacional B division next season after the resignation of
JJ Lopez, the club said on Monday.
The record 33-time Argentine league champions went down for
the first time in their 110-year existence on Sunday when they
lost a relegation-promotion play-off against Nacional B side
Belgrano 3-1 on aggregate.
"For this transitional new stage Matias Almeyda was
unanimously appointed to take charge of the new River Plate
team," the board said in a statement on the club's website.
Almeyda, who played for Parma and Lazio in Italy and
Argentina at the 1998 and 2002 World Cups, was a part of Lopez's
team this season but missed Sunday's decisive second leg, a 1-1
draw at the Monumental, through suspension.
The 37-year-old has no coaching experience having come out
of semi-retirement playing for Lyn in Norway and then Fenix in
the fourth tier of the Argentine game to return to River, his
first club, in 2009.
The board also ratified Daniel Passarella, who took office
18 months ago, as the club president charged with leading River
into unknown territory in the tough second tier of Argentine
football.
"The board of directors met today... to unanimously seal
the continuity of president Daniel Passarella for the start of
River Plate's refounding," the statement said.
Passarella has been heavily criticised by opponents in the
huge membership of one of Argentina's biggest and most popular
clubs for the way he has handled their massive debts during the
team's plunge into the relegation zone.
River did not have a bad season but paid the price for a
poor points average over three seasons - the system by which
relegation is determined in Argentina.
The system was, ironically, created in the early 1980s to
protect the big clubs from a poor campaign.
Hooligan fans known as 'Barra bravas' caused mayhem inside and
outside the giant Monumental stadium after Sunday's match,
wrecking everything they could lay their hands on and leaving a
trail of injured supporters and police officers.
The Monumental has been closed on orders from a prosecutor
seeking to establish if too many match tickets were sold. He
will also investigate the policing operation which involved
2,200 officers. Police made nearly 40 arrests.
Doubling as Argentina's national stadium, the Monumental is
due to stage the July 24 final of the Copa America, which kicks
off on Friday with the opening match between the host nation and
Bolivia in La Plata, capital of Buenos Aires province.