:format(webp)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/grupoclarin/MXVB4J5EWNE2FKSJ6WOGNMODOA.jpg "12 years after the return of Belgrano at the hands of its owners: the partners")
This July 1st marks the 12th anniversary of one of its most glorious moments in the rich history of Belgrano, because it is the anniversary of the club’s return to the hands of its members. A fact that occurred just a few days after having established himself in the return to the First Division after having descended River to the B Nacional in the same act.
A dozen years ago, after sending a series of notes to AFA, the Cordobesa League and the Legal Entities Inspection Directorate (as it was called in 2011), from the court that dealt with the bankruptcy for almost 9 years, who was The manager: Armando Pérez, became the new president of El Pirata until 2014 after the lifting of the bankruptcy decreed on September 18, 2001.
This was a historic event for national football, since El Pirata at that time was the first club that managed to recover financially and institutionally after bankruptcy and as if it were a paradox of fate, in 2001 when “B” was one step away from the extinction as a civil institution, it was in the First Division and its return to partners came with a promotion.
Since that year, three presidents have passed, the club was six under the presidency of Armando Pérez, four with Jorge Franceschi (one more was extended due to the pandemic) and two with Luis Artime who still has one more year to go in management.
Democracy returned to the club not to leave it anymore. The sad moments of bankruptcy, with an institution devastated economically and in sports, is a distant memory.
Those years of a battered stadium, of players running on the banks of the Suquía River, employees spending months without pay and soccer players being evicted from their homes for non-payment of rent, are part of history and are far removed from the institutional present. del Pirata, which today has almost 60,000 members and a stadium for 33,000 spectators.
The process
On September 18, 2001, before facing San Lorenzo for the Primera tournament, Alberdi’s club declared bankruptcy. The president at the time, Gregorio Raúl Ledesma, was unable to deal with a claim by soccer player Eddy Carazas and institutional life came to an abrupt halt.
In the hands of an administration trust, appointed by the Seventh Nomination Court in Civil and Commercial Matters, “B” could not hold its own in First Division and was relegated after losing 1-0 to Unión in Santa Fe on May 4, 2002.
When the danger of disappearance was around Alberdi and the club did not seem to be interested in anyone, the management specifications had two interested parties, but there was only one proposal: that of Córdoba Celestes SA, headed by Norberto Castaños, who began the recovery process and the reorganization from the bases to try to clean up the accounts and return to First Division as soon as possible.
Accompanied by the brothers Luis and Alejandro Manzanares, Carlos Bustos (one of the main footballer recruiters), Marcelo Oliva, Fernando Cáceres and Pablo Reyna, Belgrano was managed and took his first steps without the partners as protagonists.
Armando Pérez during one of his visits to the Newsroom of La Voz del Interior. (The Voice/File)
In 2003, Luis Manzanares stayed with Córdoba Celeste, after Castaños left, and in 2005 he transferred the shares to Armando Pérez, who 11 months after being president of Córdoba Celeste, achieved promotion to First Division on the Olimpo field in Bahia. White (June 4, 2006).
Dream fulfilled
After nine years of management, the more than 24 million pesos that the club owed in September 2001 (times one to one), were canceled with the distribution process approved by Judge Saúl Silvestre, with which the bankruptcy was left. virtually cancelled.
A full stadium. Full of celestial lights and every corner occupied by a partner (Belgrano Press)
In those days the magistrate assured: “I feel part of this moment in Belgrano. I am terribly happy and it is a dream come true: the healthy club returns to the hands of the partners,” he told Mundo D.
Today, Belgrano is an example in many areas, it continues to grow rapidly and the corporate mass grows day by day.