Antonio Vespucio Liberti was a former chairman of Club Atlético River Plate. The presided the club four times, becoming the president who was most often in charge of the club, with 20 non-consecutive years in office. During his periods in charge, River Plate won six titles, three Primera División, one Copa Ibarguren and two Copa Aldao. Liberti carried out bold efforts that contributed to the institutional and sporting greatness of the club. Under his mandate the Estadio Monumental was built, which is currently named after him.
Biography
The son of Genoese immigrants, Liberti held the chairmanship multiple times: initially from 1933–35, in 1939, 1943–52, 1960–64, and finally, 1966-69. The golden era of River Plate is widely attributed to his management, though he also came under criticism for the large sums he devoted towards acquiring foreign players in what in some cases turned out as poor investments. Some of those players were Carlos Peucelle and Bernabé Ferreyra, for whom the club paid m$n 35,000, a huge amount of money for those times. Liberti's most lasting achievement was arguably his persuading the River Plate directors to purchase a then flood-prone, 84,000 m² lot near the northern end of Buenos Aires' Belgrano neighborhood for the development of a new stadium and other club facilities. Liberti had a close relationship with Alberto J. Armando, president of arch-rival Boca Juniors, with whom he agreed on what decades later would be called "football company" or "management" that promoted the football show, an initiative emerged from the demise of the Argentina national team at the 1958 World Cup. River Plate hired foreign footballers with the purpose of increasing the level of the local competitions and the attendance to stadiums. One of those players was Uruguayan Roberto Matosas, which River Plate acquired from Peñarol for US$ 250,000, although those acquisitions did not help the club to win more titles. Liberti died on November 28, 1978. Eight years after his death, the stadium was renamed in his honor.
