Hernán Crespo has not yet formally sat on the Atlas FC bench to direct his first official match in the Liga MX, but his management in Aztec football has already been allegedly stained by audacity and bad practices.
What should have been a simple technical debut became a scandal of greater proportions after the Santos Laguna board presented compelling evidence before the Disciplinary Commission, accusing blatant espionage committed by the Argentine strategist's assistant last Saturday, violating the privacy of the TSM stadium locker rooms.
In accordance with the strict regulatory terms to be able to file a protest in the penalty court of the governing body of soccer in Mexico, the Santos Laguna board formally filed a request to initiate an investigation procedure.
The file goes straight to the point: it focuses on the incidents that occurred at halftime of the game against Atlas FC, a key space where a formal complaint was generated about conduct that directly undermines fair play and the integrity of the competition.
The leaders of the lagoon team hope that, with this request supported by digital material, the complaint that is already in the public domain will be relentlessly followed up. The accusation indicates the presence of people wearing official clothing of the red and black team at the very doors of the local locker room, supposedly with the sole intention of illegally listening to the tactical instructions and corrections that the Portuguese coach Renato Paiva made to his players for the complementary part.
The institutional and official position of Santos Laguna was established as follows: “We trust that the Disciplinary Commission will carry out the corresponding investigation and act accordingly to clarify what happened, always in accordance with current regulations and in favor of the integrity of the competition.”
Likewise, the same document establishes that, in strict adherence to due process, the institution will not issue additional public judgments on the subject or fuel controversies on social networks, maintaining institutional silence until the authorities of the Disciplinary Commission issue a resolution in accordance with the facts and the competition regulations. The facts and images that accuse the Atlas
Among the unofficially irrefutable evidence presented by the Santos Laguna board, a video of the internal security system of the TSM Corona stadium stands out. In the images, personnel wearing clothing the color of the Atlas uniform can be clearly perceived hanging around and remaining near the door of the Santos Laguna locker room.
The members of the offended team assure that this closeness was not a coincidence, but rather a strategy to listen to Renato Paiva's instructions. At the time the recorded events occurred, the duel on the field remained tied without goals. At the end of the day, Atlas ended up winning 1-0 with a goal from Edgar Saldívar in the 64th minute.
Although during the 90 minutes no visible disagreement or irregularity reported by the refereeing body arose, the bomb exploded at the end of the match, when Torreón's senior officials reviewed the security cameras and came across the controversial video.
In these images, it is claimed that you can see a person perfectly linked to Atlas who remained glued to the door of the Santos Laguna locker room to listen to everything that was happening inside. Given the seriousness of the alleged tactical and administrative foul, now the Laguneros firmly demand that the three points be obtained on the table and an exemplary sanction that sets a precedent for the rojinegros and for the entire Liga MX. Identity, visas and lack of official accreditation
The aforementioned character captured by the security cameras has been fully identified by the local board. This is Federico Martinetti, a physical trainer who arrived in the country precisely together with the group of close collaborators of Hernán Crespo, the new red and black helmsman.
For this reason, the Santos Laguna board demanded that the investigation be opened ex officio to exhaustively review everything from the internal security protocols of the property to the sporting conduct of those involved in the game, seeking to establish the administrative and sporting sanctions that arise from the investigation.
Another extremely interesting and aggravating fact that Santos Laguna presented in its report is that Martinetti did not have any legal authorization to be in that restricted area of the stadium.
Until the moment of the match, Crespo's coaching staff had not been formally registered in Liga MX, due to a bureaucratic delay that forced them to travel to Guatemala last Friday to urgently process their work visa and be able to work legally in Mexican soccer.
Without registration or the official badge of the league, the presence of the assistant in the internal corridors not only violated the competition regulations, but also the most basic security protocols of the stadium or just that Santos Laguna had at the last minute granted him an all-access pass, as usually happens as a courtesy to the visiting team's personnel.
It is expected that next Friday, the Disciplinary Commission will have the resolution of Santos Laguna's formal complaint.
