“They're going to play with goalkeeper's jersey”: Pagani's fierce criticism of the Boca Juniors leadership ahead of the Superclassic

Journalist Horacio Pagani was lapidary in defining the decision made by the Boca Juniors leadership to want to wear the yellow shirt against River Plate. The argument of the Xeneize popes would be a matter of cabal since that alternative clothing was used last Sunday in Estudiantes and was triumph 1-0 in La Plata. However, wearing that model for the Superclassic generated strong controversy.

“With words you don't win and with alternative t-shirts, neither,” Pagani started. “This thing about Boca is a strong scoundrel, it's playing with the goalkeeper's shirt. In the years when I was a boy, all archers wore a yellow shirt. After that, Amadeo (Carrizo) began to change. Until also once Lev Yashin came to play a match with Russia on River's court and played everything in black,” he added.

Pagani continued and noted: “Love for the real club jersey was lost. As it is a matter of marketing and those in charge are the companies that supply the clothes. Another thing has been lost in football, which is the shirt.”

However, Pagani's teammates clarified that the decision was not because of a marketing issue, but because of a cabal question for the victory against Pincha for the sixth date of the League Cup, which also left the blue and gold team third in the table of Zone 2 with 11 points (same amount as Colón but with no better difference of goal), two of Estudiantes.

“And if they lose, then they have to burn the shirt,” Pagani shot. “For me it doesn't screw with the shirt. It's just as important as the swollen. People who believe in that are respected, but they are all nonsense. You don't play with the shirt. For my taste, this is a clear test of weakness for the people of Boca. Maybe as Riquelme played for Villarreal, it occurred to him that he could play with this one. It seems to me a lack of respect for the fans,” he said.

“The shirt is sacred; leave something sacred in football, you are destroying it everywhere. Leave something old! Okay, I understand that in the face of similar shirts the place can change, but Boca's and River's shirts don't look alike,” he said.

“Let him know the utopia of Boca winning the Superclassic, five years from now they watch when they beat him and no one is going to realize that it was Boca with the yellow shirt. It's okay in matches that have similar shirts to change so they don't get confused, but River and Boca's can't be confused,” he concluded.

After the triumph against the platense cast, the version of the possible use of the yellow shirt against the top rival was known. This was later confirmed in the week and for the first time Boca Juniors will wear that jacket design against River Plate. In a 2010 summer friendly played in Mar del Plata, due to the centenary year of Boca Juniors, he used a blue one with a yellow cross in honor of the Swedish flag.

In much of the 1980s, the yellow shirt was the alternative model until 1989 when the variant was a white one with bright blue and gold, with the same design that the German national team used at that time. The use of this yellow jacket in the Superclassic aroused many controversies and the debate seems to have no end.

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