Deportivo Riestra faces an investigation by the Argentine Football Association (AFA) after “disrespecting football” by starting the streamer “Spreen” against Vélez Sarsfield on Monday. Ivan Buhajeruk is a social media influencer who goes by the name of his alter ego and, above all, has more than eight million subscribers on YouTube and more than five million followers on Instagram.
Spreen has never played professional football but started against Argentine leader Vélez as an attacker and coach Cristian Fabbiani waited 50 seconds before substituting the 24-year-old before he could even touch the ball. Deportivo Riestra has a history of marketing tricks and not only handed Buhajeruk a professional contract, but also registered him with the AFA in February.
Spreen trained with the team last Tuesday and the club has defended its actions as helping its main sponsor, which is an energy drink company. However, current and former players have criticized the move and many have even gone so far as to condemn it in strong terms and the AFA is now set to investigate.
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“What happened today was a lack of respect for football, it is a wrong message to society, to children who strive,” said Vélez attacker Braian Romero after his 43rd minute penalty opened the marker. “Football is not that, it is trying and failing and trying again,” he added while the former Argentine international and current president of Estudiantes de la Plata, Juan Sebastián Verón, called it: “a total lack of respect for football and the footballers.” ” via Instagram.
According to Deportivo Riestra captain Milton Celiz, club owner and energy drink sponsor Victor Stinfale came up with the idea of Buhajeruk playing. “He laughed and told me to leave him for half an hour,” Fabbiani said of his conversation with his counterpart Gustavo Quinteros de Vélez before the incident.
“It’s something contractual that was signed a long time ago and the club depends a lot on publicity. It was probably something specific,” he added. Nicolás Caro Torres equalized for Deportivo Riestra after 63 minutes, which served to draw 1-1 against the league leaders who are with 43 points, while Deportivo Riestra is ninth with 31.
“Considering that it is up to the Ethics Court to carry out investigations into all conduct that may damage the reputation and integrity of Argentine football, particularly when it involves illegal, immoral or unethical conduct as stipulated in article 2 of the AFA Code of Ethics “, reads AFA bulletin number 6587. “Open the investigation and request the intervention of the investigative body of this Court as appropriate.”
Article 2 of the AFA Code of Ethics establishes that “this code applies to players, employees; intermediaries; legal entities; officials; match officials and other natural persons and/or related to them who belong to or are subject to the AFA and/or its directly or indirectly affiliated Clubs.” Buhajeruk hails from Santa Fe and became the first content creator outside of Spain to rank among the top three most popular Spanish-speaking streamers when he surpassed El Rubius and Illo Juan in early 2023, placing him behind only Ibai Llanos with 104.5 million hours watched and Auronplay. .
On Monday, Riestra issued a statement apologizing for the stunt.
“Yesterday we had the opportunity to present Iván Buhajeruk, one of the most important influencers in Latin America, in the match against Vélez… Unfortunately, this action generated many negative opinions. We want to offer our most sincere apologies to those who felt offended. ”
