The most horrible of nights has ended for Cúcuta Deportivo, the team that today rises from the ground, with its red and black impetus, to see the light again in Colombian professional football, to play again, to excite its fans again. . It will be for now in B, since every resurgence entails a procedure, but with the ambition of seeking rapid promotion. The road starts this Sunday against Boca Juniors de Cali, 4:05 pm Win +. Cúcuta returned, never to leave again.
fall and return
No one in Cúcuta wants to turn around to look at this long and deep martyrdom that they have lived through, this heavy exile that they had to assume due to administrative breaches, due to the crisis that could not be covered with a finger. But the story was written there and you have to review it to understand the magnitude of this awakening: it was in 2020 when the club hid its prestige of almost 100 years. Suffocated by debts, and by not paying them, he ended up losing sports recognition, a poisoned dagger to the red and black heart. Then, the thrust: the disaffiliation of the Dimayor. Cúcuta was practically dying, he suffered a death in life, a burial in Colombian soccer. Disappearing was an option. But Cúcuta does not disappear.
Colombian soccer assimilated that void in 2021, stopping visiting that adverse place, where playing was always a threat. In 2022, a small window was opened for the club, after the reorganization process was accepted, with an agreement to restructure its debts, valued at more than 13,000 million pesos. That was like a victory in the last minute of a final in the A, a resurrection that allowed the motilón club to rethink its liabilities while continuing to exercise its corporate purpose, sports. So, in a club assembly they gave him the missing vote: they accepted his return and his affiliation with Dimayor. They told him, “Welcome back, Mr. Cúcuta, but you have to reappear from below, from B, it’s the price.” And Mr. Cúcuta, although he aspired to a comeback in the A, had to accept the punishment, but what he had already won was victory.
They told him: ‘Welcome back, Mr. Cúcuta, but you have to reappear from below, from B, it’s the price’
With a new president, Eduardo Silva Meluk, the same one who was in the leadership of Millonarios and in the presidency of Independiente Medellín, Cúcuta launched his new project. And although José Cadena, the same one who led the team to its coma, is still there, the new guideline points to a total reorganization.
On Wednesday, the Ministry of Sport made the missing announcement: it renewed its sports recognition. Cúcuta’s affiliation to the Colombian Football Federation was the final requirement to achieve renewal, for a period of five years, as announced by Ministry of Sport. So it was a reality. Cúcuta is back, and returns from today.
(Be sure to read: Piqué in oblivion? The messages that de la Rúa would have sent to Shakira).
The new Cucuta
Cúcuta will dawn today with a new sun. The General Santander stadium will reopen its doors for professional football. The fans will be able to take out their red and black jersey, the new one, the old one, the one with the amulet, perhaps one from the 2006 title or the 2007 Copa Libertadores one. be tuned to greet the club, those new 11 players who will take to the field today to start carving out this new story of resurrection.
Those fans know passion. These days they were very active acquiring their subscription, strategic plan of the new president Silva to fill the stands. Silva said during the week that more than 14,000 tickets had already been sold. Press versions indicated yesterday that they are already at 17,000. More than 30,000 fans are expected today. In addition, flags are announced for all the fans, so that General Santander becomes a carnival. And the subscriptions are still on sale, until July 24, to guarantee presence in the 8 local games.
The new team will be led by ex-soccer player Aquivaldo Mosquera, the same who was a defender for the Colombian National Team and who recently received his title as coach. The same one who already thinks like one more motilón. “We really want the tournament to start, and we want it to be a team that people like, that is dynamic, that gives itself at all times. There are very good players”, Mosquera told ‘Win Sports’.
The fans will also be able to see three Argentines who came to add their status as foreigners and who generate expectations: Ezequiel Mastrolía, Maximiliano Coronel and Lucas Ríos. Also to the two main reinforcements, César Arias and Jonathan Agudelo. There is a team. Cúcuta thus feeds his dream.
Players and fans carry in their blood a desire for vindication, like those who cry out, ‘we are Cúcuta, and we are back’, that will be the battle slogan. The team dreams of returning to A as soon as possible, so that the return is complete and triumphant. But for this they must win this six-month tournament, and then look for the place in A against Chicó, winner of the first semester. That is the task, the mentality, there is no other. The day has come, General Santander vibrates, because there it comes with all the resurrected Cúcuta Deportivo.
PAUL ROMERO
SPORTS EDITOR EL TIEMPO
@PabloRomeroET
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