Veracruz, the team that did not win a year ago, got into the history books and paid not to descend – 09/09/2019

Three zeros happen to the comma: 0.000103 is the percentage of probability that a team disputes 34 matches and does not even get a victory. The mathematics, cold, shows that it is an atypical situation. And yet football is allowed to challenge logic. In this case, to shape one of the worst streaks in the history of professional football.

Founded five centuries ago by Hernán Cortés, Veracruz is the most important port city in Mexico and the headquarters of the most attractive carnival festival in that country. It is also the home of the Red Sharks, one of the participants, under the name of Deportivo Veracruz, in the first professional edition of the league, in 1943. A club that has Jorge Comas in his idol gallery -forward Boca and Vélez in the 1980s-, which changed ownership several times (in Mexico clubs are mercantile societies), which was disenrolled and even disappeared for a decade (1979-1989).

It was almost a month before the last Mexican autumn began when the Red Sharks were last victorious of a stadium. It was his, Luis "Pirata" de la Fuente, on August 25, 2018. That day, the 7,693 spectators who partially occupied the stands celebrated Diego Chavez's lonely goal at 7 minutes of the first half and that won the victory 1 to 0 against Xolos de Tijuana. Since then, the Earth made a complete turn around the Sun, the four seasons passed and Veracruz did not win again.

Ten games in the remainder of that Opening 2018, the 17 duels of the Clausura 2019 and the seven that already passed in the current tournament shape the dire series: 34 meetings and no flowers. Eight draws and 26 losses, including some thunderous ones like a 9 to 2 against Pachuca and a 7 to 0 against Necaxa. This streak already shattered the mark of the English Derby County, which in the 2007/08 season of the Premier League had chained 32 games without winning, and matched that of Argentino de Quilmes, who completed the 34 dates of the 1939 tournament without joys ( four equalities and 30 setbacks). The modest consolation for Veracruz in these 12 months is the three victories for the MX Cup: two against Zacatecas Miners and one against Lobos BUAP.

The cataract of adverse results was phagocyted to three coaches (in addition to two interim): the Chilean Juvenal Olmos, the Uruguayan Robert Siboldi and the Mexican Enrique Meza. The last one left after a beating 5 to 0 against Gallos Blancos de Querétaro 10 days ago. “This is not the fault of the players. If you have to blame someone, that's me. I feel helpless, ”he admitted before leaving. "We are a total shame, we do not deserve to wear this shield"Gabriel Peñalba, one of the five Argentines that make up the squad (the others are Cristian Menéndez, Daniel Villalva, Gaspar Iñiguez and Federico Illanes) sentenced the same day.

Faced with such malaria, any football player with elementary knowledge would wonder how this team, by far the worst of last season in the MX League, continues to play in the First Division. The answer is counted in banknotes: 120 million Mexican pesos (equivalent to six million dollars). It was what the club leadership paid to keep the place in the highest category, covered in article 23 of the competition regulations, which contemplates that chance to keep the place after a sports descent.

Cause or consequence, the Red Sharks football debacle is accompanied by a chain of economic defaults that already cost him a six point discount in April, for not paying $ 224,500 to Montevideo Wanderers for the training rights of midfielder Matías Santos, and a FIFA order to pay almost one and a half million dollars to Matías Cahais, former defender of Boca and Racing, for Salaries not received during your stay at the club in 2016 and for compensation for the termination of your contract.

Not only those who are no longer affected. The current squad also suffers delays in the collection of their assets, although so far the players preferred not to make the situation public, so neither the Mexican Association of Professional Footballers (AMFPro) nor the Mexican Football Federation (FMF) could start Actions.

The government of the State of Veracruz is the owner of the name, trademark, facilities and logo of Red Sharks, but the owner of the certificate of affiliation (the document granted by the FMF so that a team can participate in the League MX) is Fidel Kuri Grajales, an entrepreneur linked to transportation and construction, a federal deputy for the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) who also owns Albinegros de Orizaba, a club of the Mexican third division.

“I am fixing how to pay them and update them. I would like to pay them, but I don't have what, ”Kuri Grajales argued last week. Waiting for the businessman to honor his commitments, the team, with a new coach (Enrique López Zarza), will try next Friday against Cruz Azul to break a streak that has already earned a place in the history books of professional football.