For profit or for all? Argentine football clubs red-card Milei reforms [Video]

A debate over the soul of football is raging in World Cup holders Argentina, pitting defenders of the social role of the beautiful game against the government of libertarian President Javier Milei, who wants to turn clubs into for-profit companies.

Argentina, which gave the world Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi, is home to some of the world’s most devoted football fans — a fact attributed by supporters like Gabriel Nicosia to the clubs’ community outreach.

Nicosia is a lifelong supporter of San Lorenzo, a more-than-century-old first division club based in the working-class Buenos Aires neighborhood of Boedo where he grew up.

Several times a week he crosses town to have a coffee or work out in the club of which Argentina-born Pope Francis is a fan.

“When I come here I meet my childhood friends. It’s a fundamental pillar of everyday life,” says the 50-year-old accountant, one of 80,000 members …