Last November, players of Venezuelan first division football team Trujillanos took to the pitch with a banner demanding their long unpaid salaries and then stood still for a minute in protest once the game kicked off.
By Reuters – By Jordan Florit
May 17, 2021
Since then, the head coach has left to manage the U-20 national team and their three best players moved to clubs in Brazil, Colombia and Canada for next to nothing.
In the first four games of the new season, the 2014 league runners-up have shipped 15 goals without reply, non-payment persists, and they play in a stadium 200 km (125 miles) away after their own failed to meet minimum standards.
“The past year has been very difficult and hard for everyone, but I have never lost hope,” Trujillanos midfielder Jair Andara told Reuters on the bus back from a 2-0 loss away to Deportivo Táchira.
It is a familiar story across Latin America, where the coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc with sport, but matters are acutely exacerbated in Venezuela by economic crisis and political strife during President Nicolas Maduro’s rule.
Despite such domestic chaos, the national team are hopeful as they head into next month’s Copa America 10 years on from their greatest ever finish in the tournament: a semi-final penalty shootout exit to Paraguay.
“It’s been 12 very weird months, but an opportunity to grow and evaluate,” said defender Roberto Rosales, who played on that historic night in 2011 and will almost certainly be in the squad again in June, now aged 32.
FIFA INTERVENTION
As it stands, Venezuela will begin the Copa with a leaderless federation. Jesus Berardinelli, then Venezuelan Football Federation (FVF) president, died in police custody on Aug. 5 last year, with the cause recorded as acute respiratory failure and COVID-19.
Authorities were investigating him at the time for alleged misuse of public funds, but his family rubbished the accusations and lamented that his death deprived them of a chance to defend him.
A month later, after calls from former national team manager Dr. Richard Paez and other prominent figures, FIFA appointed a normalisation committee to take charge of the federation and hold elections for new directors by June 30, 2021.
Eight months on, an election date of May 28 has only just been set and Paez believes nothing has changed.
“There is nowhere to turn,” he said from Texas, having left Venezuela at the height of the pandemic.
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Read More: Reuters – Venezuela battle inner demons ahead of Copa América
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