The TV rights conflict between the clubs and the FPF could spark multiple walk-overs on day one of Liga 1 2023. Unfortunately, this is nothing new for our Peruvian football.
In the absence of hours from the supposed start of the League 1 2023, a possible League 1 release on the horizon The panorama of the dispute between the Peruvian clubs and the FPF shows no sign of improvement. After the meeting between Juan Reynoso, Agustín Lozano and Alberto Otárola, the Prime Minister announced that the tournament will be played from date 3. The game between Cusco FC and Sport Huancayo is scheduled for 3:30 p.m., but both the current conflict and the difficult The social situation in the city of Cusco make the possibility of this happening normally seem very unlikely.
Putting aside all the bad things that have already happened, there is no denying that it would be a scandal if the opening game of a top tier professional tournament like League 1 ended in a flop. Unfortunately, there is a relatively new precedent for this in Peruvian football with the launch of Descentralizado 2018, which should be avoided at all costs. What happened then?
The Mansiche Stadium in Trujillo where the UTC vs. Sporting Cristal from date 1 of the 2018 Summer Tournament was not sanctioned by the FPF. Photo: RPP
UTC and the problem with stadiums
The start of the 2018 Summer Tournament was originally scheduled for Friday February 2nd this year. The signing between UTC and Sporting Cristal in Cajamarca was supposed to open the curtain on Day 1, but there was a problem: the Héroes de San Ramón stadium, home of Gavilán Norteño, was not approved by the Technical Stadium Commission, the Tribunal and Licensing Commission of the FPF.
These bodies of the Peruvian Football Federation had warned UTC about various shortcomings that the hero of San Ramón had since last season. In the statement No. 0185-FPF-2018, addressed to the General Manager of the Cajamarca Club, it was again confirmed that the sports facility is deactivated.
UTC played its first home game of the 2018 Summer Tournament against San Martín at Carlos A. Olivares de Guadalupe Stadium. Photo: Jose Antonio Machua
Given this situation, UTC had registered the Mansiche de Trujillo stadium as the main stage and the Municipal de Casa Grande (where César Vallejo has played at home more than once) as the alternate stage. However, both sports facilities were also declared unsuitable for the practice of professional football.
Sporting Cristal y el pass
Despite UTC attempting to propose other stadiums, and later requesting a postponement of the game in the face of being denied, the February 1 FPF statement noted that a game was only postponed or suspended due to force majeure may be or force majeure. . This did not apply to the situation as it was entirely the responsibility of the home team.
UTC ended up being local to the Germán Contreras stadium in Cajabamba, where it got very strong. Photo: Arturo Castrejon
Sporting Cristal had shown a willingness to play at the time and even offered to invest the place, but that didn’t thrive. Finally, the Rimenses asked about the points of the game and the CJ-FPF decided at the end of February to award the 0-3 win to Mario Salas’ team. Carlos Benavides, the manager of the Rimense team at the time, had already warned before the tournament started that he would request it.
“If we don’t have an official answer today (January 30), with a stadium approved, we’ll see what to do. If it was the other way around, they would also ask us for the points,” Benavides said at the time. The context today is different but it would be just as disastrous for a walk to open League 1.