Belgrano celebrates 14 years since bankruptcy was lifted and partners returned.

This July 1st marks the 14th anniversary of one of the most important moments in Belgrano's rich history, as it marks the return of the club to its members.

This happened just a few days after River Plate returned to the First Division after having relegated River Plate to the National B Division in the same act.

Once again, the club was in the hands of its "owners": the members, who from that date on were able to begin managing and governing the Alberdi institution through the leaders who were and will continue to be elected by vote.

The club left behind one of the worst moments in its history and had the chance to be reborn, something that over the years materialized in the way its fans had dreamed of.

These achievements are not praised, but they have extraordinary value in the institutional life that was able to rise from the bottom and stand again.

Fourteen years ago, after sending a series of notes to AFA, the Cordoba League and the Directorate of Inspection of Legal Entities (as it was called in 2011), which came from the court that handled the bankruptcy for almost 9 years, the manager: Armando Pérez, was proclaimed the new president of Pirata until 2014 after the lifting of the bankruptcy decreed on September 18, 2001 was sanctioned.

This was a historic event for national football, as Pirata was the first club back then to recover financially and institutionally after going bankrupt. As if by a paradox of fate, in 2001, when the "B" was on the verge of extinction as a civil institution, it was in the First Division and its return to its members came with a promotion.

Since that year, three presidents have passed through. The club has been president for six years under Armando Pérez, four under Jorge Franceschi (which was extended by one more due to the pandemic), and four years under Luis Artime, who still has a year and a half left in his second term.

Democracy returned to the club, never to leave it again. The sad moments of bankruptcy, with an institution devastated financially and sportingly, which had begun long before 2001, when Pirata's darkest moment hit, were becoming a distant memory.

Those years of a battered stadium, players running on the banks of the Suquía River, employees going months without pay, and players being evicted from their homes for non-payment of rent are part of history and a far cry from the institutional present of Pirata, which today has more than 65,000 members and a stadium for 38,000 spectators.

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