Talk about Gabriel Camargo It is talking about one of the heavyweights that the leadership of Colombian soccer has had. Camargo, who died this Monday due to an illness with which he had been struggling, was not only a permanent promoter of the sports development of Deportes Tolima, but he was also a controversial leader, with a strong voice, and radical decisions.
Camargo was a businessman and sports leader who worked in politics as a senator of the Republic of Colombia, deputy of the Departmental Assembly of Cundinamarca between 1994 and 1998, and councilor of Fusagasugá. But his life associated with soccer marked a milestone in local soccer.
Camargo, a tough character
Camargo, the second oldest director of Colombian soccer after Fuad Char (1972), ventured into Deportes Tolima since 1979, and since then his word has always echoed in the Dimayor assemblies. At the club he was not only the top leader and shareholder, he was the great ‘boss’, a ‘boss’ who always had the last word.
Camargo was not silent about the controversial issues of Colombian soccer, and if he was silent for a while, he would later explode, against the current presidency, against the decisions of the assembly and even against the positions of the soccer players or any decision that affected their assets.
He was like a kind of football patron, with a lot of power. Remember that mass transit from Camargo de Tolima to Santa Fe in 1983 with actions and his player pack. When her desperate efforts to salvage a large investment failed, he went with her.
The next chapter was that of the struggle between Camargo and Fernando Carrillo. The first gave the second his shares, but the former left with the pass of his players. Santa Fe, suddenly, was left without soccer players, without headquarters, without transportation elements and even without balls.
At Dimayor, his positions were always controversial. Gabriel Camargo, majority shareholder of the institution, complained in 1993, when the team was relegated, because he could not find a solid structure in the first B. And he proposed that instead of descending the number of teams be raised (at that time) to 18 From the a.
radical decisions
In sports matters, his decisions were often radical: in 1981, Camargo had hired the Uruguayan coach Richard de Leon, but he fired him shortly after because the coach did not want to play some Paraguayans that he had bought.
Something similar happened with DT Gregory Perez, who lasted less than two months in the team due to differences with the senator. The DT assured that “I did not allow Gabriel Camargo to interfere in team decisions and that is why he fired me.”
He had another controversy over labor relations with the footballers, who denounced that the leader made changes to the conditions agreed for their contracts.
In 2019 there was a tremendous mess on behalf of the player Raphael Carrascal. Carrascal submitted his resignation from Deportes Tolima on July 11. He later arranged with América, but his home club signed him up for the match against Rionegro Águilas, without the sincelejano even being in the stadium. There began the long conflict. Camargo requested sanctions against América and took the case before the TAS,
The executive director of the Colombian Association of Professional Soccer Players (Acolfutpro), Carlos Gonzalez PucheAt that time, he strongly criticized the attitude of the Colombian soccer managers in relation to the conflict between the player Rafael Carrascal and Deportes Tolima, and denounced that a veto was being set up against the soccer player.
He was also a defender of the average system in the relegation of Colombian soccer. “The average is not an invention from here. It is something that is used in various leagues around the world, such as in Argentina. The gentlemen of B only want to see how they go up and do not want to go down,” he argued in 2012.
The controversial phrases
Camargo, generated a great controversy in 2018 with his strong statements about the Women’s League, in which he assures that women’s soccer in the country “is not going well” and that they are more “take a drink” than men.
“Ask those from Huila how sorry they are for having invested so much. And apart from that it is a tremendous breeding ground for lesbianism,” he said at the time, phrases that he had to retract.
However, Camargo was in charge of giving the club a north, and no one can take away his achievements: he led Deportes Tolima to four out of five subtitles and regular participation in the Copa Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana, added to this the most important achievements of the vinotinto and gold institution, in this case, its first, second and third national title in the 2003 Completion Tournament, the 2018 Apertura Tournament, the 2021 Apertura Tournament, in addition to the title of the 2014 Colombia Cup and the Colombian Super League of 2022
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