The club’s former doctor takes over from sitting vice president Cristian D’Amico, who didn’t gain enough votes to remain in office.
Newell’s Old Boys has a new club president. Dr Ignacio Astore, a medical professional who was once employed by the club as the team’s doctor, received the most votes in the twice-postponed club elections on Sunday.
In total, over 7000 club members voted in the elections. Astore, representing the Movimiento Independencia Leprosa group – who promised to restore transparency to the club while focusing on building the team back up to compete at a high level – won 5,386 votes in total. The sitting club vice president Cristian D’Amico, who was effectively running the club’s day-to-day matters on behalf of president Eduardo Bermúdez, was second in the race, winning just 1,834 votes despite being endorsed by club legend Jorge Griffa.
In third place was Ariel Moresco, with 212 votes. In total, 7,477 votes were registered, with 29 blank and 16 invalid votes.
Astore’s role as club president begins immediately, precisely from 08:30 Argentina Time on Monday 20 September.
The elections were controversial. Originally having been set for December 2020, they were twice postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As the voting day finally looked set to go ahead on Sunday, both of the major candidates dealt with threats and intimidation. Astore’s car was attacked at the start of last week while shots were fired at the house of Cristian D’Amico’s brother.
By Sunday, the election passed off peacefully and without incident, with Newell’s fans exercising their right to vote in a democratic election – something that had been denied for so long under the reign of tyrannical president Eduardo López in the 1990s and 2000s until he was ousted in 2009.
