A guard of honour during an Argentinian football match between Estudiantes de la Plata and Rosario Central has gone viral because the players chose to give their backs to the players, and instead face the spectators. When the players from Rosario de la Plata entered the pitch, the Estudiantes players around them turned 180º degrees.
Estudiantes ended up winning the match 1-0 in a round of 16 match of the Clausura tournament (the play-offs of the second half of the 2025 league in Argentina).
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Why did they Estudiantes players turned their backs on the Rosario players?
This protest, that has been lauded by many people in Argentina as ingenious and heroic, wasn't against the other players, but against the Argentine Football Association (AFA) and the Liga Profesional de Fútbol (LPF) who decided unilaterally last week to concede a new kind of trophy, one never before given, to Rosario Central for being the "league champion" by earning more points during the Apertura and Clausura regular seasons (with 18 victories, 12 draws and 2 defeats).
They decided it without the consultation from the rest of the clubs and taking a silence as an approval, according to La Nación. "Club Estudiantes de La Plata communicates to its members, partners, fans, and the community that, in the meeting of the Executive Committee of the Argentine Professional Football League, no vote was held regarding the recognition of the 2025 League Champion title", the club said in a statement last week.
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Argentinian football doesn't recognize a league champion through those merits, instead recognising the Apertura and Clausura champions (with play-offs) and the final league champion is determined after a match between Apertura and Clausura champions (if they are the same, the two runner-up from Apertura and Clausura play a semi-final and then face the other champion).
The rest of the clubs perceive that the league created out of the blue a new official trophy suited to Rosario, who last week travelled unexpectedly to receive the trophy, handed to star player Ángel di María. What do you think of this protest?