Football and Drugs

romy says on Aug 19, 2008, 08:32:

I'm not aware of any reputable research on this topic. I don't think anybody would take the risk of detailing this relationship of football and drugs because it involves most teams and a lot of government officials.

I personally know the America de Cali situation fairly well and can say... los Rodriguez started out as a major sponsor of the team, then moved into a money laundering allegiance, and are now a bunch of leeches (one of them in particular...).

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dwmte7 says on Aug 20, 2008, 04:43:

the reason this topic receives little press is that the connections are true and making issue of it is dangerous. during his life, pablo was an avid supporter of national. how much money he gave is unknown...what was known was that it was a lot.

patriarch

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GregYohn says on Aug 20, 2008, 08:47:

Hola!

I heard the America team is still dirty with mafioso money. It sort of gives that team a BAD BOY image compared to the more conservative Deportivo Cali team.

12VOIP.com gives free calls to Colombia.Greg

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romy says on Aug 20, 2008, 09:16:

no, these days any money that America receives or spends is heavily scrutinized, so unless if the government is in on it... The team is ran like a thug organization though, that they pay players whenever they feel like it. One of the main problems these days is that the former narco-family and the directors of the club steal a lot of the team's profits. Transfer fees, prize money and ticket sales money often disappears. At one point they sold a bunch of shares to the team, we were part of the people that were scammed by the narcos who stole our money and no chance in hell could we even attempt take claim of the team.
The people that run dep. Cali are the Valle del Cauca 'old' rich landowners, plantations, sugar cane, slave owning and so on people... In my mind these people (some family) are a different type of criminals. The difference I guess is the seriousness in contracts and business... that when we were share-holders of the team we received full access to the club's facilities which was a lot of fun because one was able to hang out with a lot of celebrities. The team makes a lot of money though, but never did we receive any profit sharing as the money disappears at the board of directors.

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Mononoke28 says on Aug 20, 2008, 09:29:

Exactly. That's why it was a big deal to see them in the final against Chicó because they can't even afford to buy good players and even the good players don't want to get tangled up with their shenanigans. I hope they pull through and make a major come back.

Diana

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GregYohn says on Aug 20, 2008, 11:53:

Hola!

How much money do you need to become a shareholder for Deportivo Cali? It might be fun just to have a share, so I could visit the club facilities.

The new Stadium out near the Cali airport doesn't seem to be a smart move. I don't know the history, but let's see the fans of the 2 teams with a few pesos spend their ticket money for the transportion to get there. They would only be able to get there half as often!

We met a bunch of children from the neighborhood that would skip their lunch to go to the games. A team member let them in and they were nice to us. The young boys explained to my GF about the game, since she never watched one before. I think those children would not be visiting the new stadium also.

12VOIP.com gives free calls to Colombia.Greg

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romy says on Aug 20, 2008, 12:37:

seems like the cost is 200k monthly (http://www.deporcali.com/deporcali/socios/beneficios.php)

Rozo is where they could get the land for very cheap, though if it was going to be built outside of the city then it should have been in the south. The 'big dog' Cali fans live in Ciudad Jardin and Pance and it's going to take them an hour to get to the game and an hour back... yeah it's going to get tiering very quick. I believe the team will operate shuttle buses out to the stadium from different points around the city, probably the lower class barrios.

The children will be left out is true, not many will venture outside the city.

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Mononoke28 says on Aug 20, 2008, 13:42:

How close are they to finish building that stadium? It's been forever and a day!

Diana

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romy says on Aug 20, 2008, 14:47:

Late October is supposed to be the opening... they are playing against an Ecuadorian team that just won the south american club championship (Libertadores). I hope they carry on playing their league games there and then I'll be able to visit the stadium when I get to Cali later this year. Even if it seems ridiculous to me to have to pay peaje to go watch a local team play their home games. Sad to say but would the construction have been in North America or Europe, the stadium would have opened at least 2 years ago..

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GregYohn says on Aug 20, 2008, 21:44:

Hola!

I have had a Depotivo Cali keychain with the new stadium on it for two years!

12VOIP.com gives free calls to Colombia.Greg

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GregYohn says on Aug 20, 2008, 21:51:

Hola!

I have a Deportivo Cali keychain with the new stadium for 2 years now.

My cable provider shows their games with English commentators on basic cable, but the Spanish version is not free!

12VOIP.com gives free calls to Colombia.Greg

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Juanes says on Aug 21, 2008, 08:22:

ah my favourite two subjects in the world after women......el futbol y las drugas...


went to both clasicos last year in medellin and cali, those fans spend more time winding each other up with back to the game letting off fireworks compared to their latin counterparts...

http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Juanes/

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coffee beaner says on Aug 21, 2008, 10:42:

I don't know where people get this connection between Pablo Escobar and Atl. Nacional.... if you are from Medellin and are aware about football here in Antioquia you should know that Pablo Escobar was a huge Independiente Medellin fan. They even buried him with a DIM flag.

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romy says on Aug 21, 2008, 10:50:

that didn't stop him... there's a certain libertadores championship that is so cherished by Nacional fans and there's one man to thank.

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Mononoke28 says on Aug 21, 2008, 11:22:

Do any of you guys know how the Envigado team was put together? Did Pablo Escobar have anything to do with it?

Diana

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dwmte7 says on Aug 21, 2008, 14:52:

if my 19 year memory serves me right, anything that happened in envigado specifically or medallo, generally, was highly influenced by pablo. especially the sports clubs...he was so enthusiastic about football.

patriarch

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romy says on Aug 21, 2008, 15:35:

built them their stadium... probably financed the team heavily. I would guess he's the reason they made it to the first division originally. They were actually able to set up a very good youth academy at envigado, the talent coming out of there seems endless. Latest gem is Giovanni Moreno who has moved on to nacional.

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coffee beaner says on Aug 21, 2008, 20:07:

The man to thank for that libertadores is called Francisco Maturana, Leonel Alvarez, Higuita and Usurriaga. Last I checked the only ones that cried about mafia or getting robbed in that libertadores were Millonarios, yet Olimpia, Racing and Danubio who got crushed in Medellin 6 - 0 never even mentioned anything. Also, if according to you mafia had to do with Nacional winning the libertadores then what happened to America de Cali all 4 times they made it to the finals?

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Juanes says on Aug 22, 2008, 03:30:

nice comment coffe beaner and very relevant and maybe they are getting mixed up with andres escobar (the nacional defender shot after USA world cup 1994) and pablito escobar,

soy soy verde..viva nacional !

http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Juanes/

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dwmte7 says on Aug 22, 2008, 10:10:

like the horns in the streets of medallo and envigado...beep-beep-beep-; beep-beep-beep.....na-cion-al; na-cion-al; na-cion-al. it will go on around the clock. before a game and after a winner.

patriarch

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