Hilbert on ADN Gol: Farías’ transfer is all above board | OneFootball

This morning on ADN Gol with Darío Pignata, both club officials made statements regarding Facundo Farías’ legal claim, who appeared before the courts requesting payment of 15% of his transfer to Inter Miami. Dr. Luis Hilbert, former Coordinating Secretary and legal advisor of Colón during José Vignatti’s administration, began speaking, gave an exclusive statement, and said the following:

“Yes, all of this was really surprising for a lot of reasons. We have to go back a bit to the moment of the transfer. We, as the institution, when the transfer to Inter Miami was made—you know that there’s a procedure to comply with for the players, according to the player’s statute there’s a 15% share.”

Farías donated that 15% to the institution. In fact, how was this done? Well, it was done through a donation agreement between Club Atlético Colón and Facundo Farías. In this agreement, including the 15% amount, there’s a specific clause stating that the player himself makes this donation with the condition that the money be allocated to activities and needs of the club’s youth categories, meaning youth players, and also amateur football.

I was the Coordinating Secretary, in charge of a lot of disciplines, which I’ll mention to you, like hockey, volleyball, football, senior, basketball, etc. All of this brings up the following: with that sum, first a procedure had to be done, which was done in an agreement, with the signature certified by public deed, it’s not just an ordinary paper. Once it’s certified by a public notary, it was taken to the Argentine Footballers’ Union, because it’s the union that has to control that 15%.

If the Argentine Footballers’ Union gives you the OK, that the player has donated or made a decision regarding that 15%, only then does the union send the relevant documentation or informs the Argentine Football Association that everything is in order, so that only at that moment can the Argentine Football Association send the transfer to the club where the player is going. So, all the documentation of what I’m saying is at the club, we also have a copy, everything is clear, it’s completely transparent how things were done, and if not, the union wouldn’t have given the OK, nor would the AFA have sent the transfer.

It’s also very important, and you as a journalist know this, that Farías himself expressed his gratitude, and there are many conferences or interviews with Facundo where he himself stated that the money corresponding to the 15% was donated for the aforementioned purpose, so all the documentation is in order.

Now, the reason why he’s doing this, well, we don’t know, honestly it’s unbelievable that he’s doing this now when he’s had a completely opposite attitude to what he’s publicly stated, and he’s signed what I’m saying, certified by the Public Tribunal and presented to the Argentine Football Association through the Union.

Yes, the club has it and the Union has it, they also have to have a certified copy with all the documentation, otherwise they can’t notify the AFA that the 15% has been fulfilled. There’s also an important point I think the general public should know: a lot of projects were done with Farías’ money, for example, if you ask me, if you go to the training grounds, the fencing of field 8 was done with posts and wire, a stand that was under construction was completed and a new one was built, and there was talk of naming those stands after Facundo Farías. Tools and new blades for cutting the grass were also purchased, and this is important to me because I was the coordinating secretary and had a link between the board of directors and all the different subcommittees I mentioned, like football, hockey, basketball, futsal, women’s football.

Regarding women’s football, I also want to say, it’s very important to highlight that they were playing on the Rafael Batres field, the auxiliary field, which was just bare dirt. The youth teams played there, Manetti called me all the time because they also had league matches, the senior team played there too. At one point it was necessary to address that, there was no way to get good water there, and I remember that at that time a bypass was made, I think that’s what it’s called, bringing water from the main field so the Batres auxiliary field could have water. As I said, the youth and kids played there a lot, and thanks to that, you could see when you went to the field how we managed to get the grass to grow. So, a lot of projects and improvements were made for the kids, the youth teams, even in the dormitory, the dining hall for the kids was also greatly improved, so a lot was done with that, and all of that is reflected in the work done.

Later, Jose Alonso, who was vice president during Vignatti’s administration, joined the conversation and also shared his thoughts on the matter.

The only thing I want to say and express is that Farías’ transfer was impeccable, all perfectly correct as it should be, with constant contact with the MLS, with Inter Miami, where every action taken to carry out Farías’ transfer was completely neat and fully traceable. The current officials know this because we’ve talked about it personally when they asked certain questions about our administration and we clearly explained how the whole process was, even when I was out of the country with José Vignatti and we carried it forward.

We’re not just talking about the transfers, as Luis said, but also about how the management was, where all the money from Farías was deposited in a local bank—I won’t say the name, but everyone who knows this administration knows it—all the documentation was not only done in Spanish but also in English, and it’s all certified and managed. I believe an act of donation, which is a voluntary, charitable act, where a person waives their rights, is a civil act, it cannot be turned into a labor claim, because if it were a labor claim, it would expire after two years, and two years have already passed since this event, so it’s even expired in that sense. And besides what he said, it’s very simple, because there can’t be any transfer in football that doesn’t go through the union, justifying that 15% retention the club must have for the player.

It was so neat that even a check was issued for the player, who then endorsed the check in favor of the club, which makes it even more certified, that goes to the union and the union processed the transfer, so he was cleared to play, otherwise he couldn’t have played. Nothing could be clearer than that. So I think everyone can be at ease about this, I think the line the current officials should take—because this is an attack on Colón, which is not appropriate—there should be a common legal response, because ultimately we are Colón supporters and we have to defend Colón against people who commit these inappropriate acts. So I want to clarify that because Luis already explained how the process was and it’s totally clear, forceful, justifiable, and documented,” concluded the former Sabalero directors.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.