The Argentine Football Association (AFA) is at the center of scrutiny and not for sporting reasons. The Justice of USA tightened the fence around the entity chaired by Claudio “Chiqui” Tapia by expanding this week the investigation into its leaders for alleged diversion of funds in international contracts, as revealed by the Argentine press. The scandal is even greater because the case is not the only investigation that puts the AFA in trouble in the United States and Argentina.
“What is most striking at this moment are the numbers that are being handled, the sums of money. Then, it is not a single cause, there are different related causes. The last one that the newspapers published mentions the summons in the United States, but it is different from a cause that has been developing in Argentina for a long time and is different from another cause that exists in the United States as well. It is like a series of causes that have the characters as an element in common, but are not necessarily related to each other,” he says. Rodriguez Rey.
In Argentina, three months ago, a judge formally accused the AFA, Tapia and other directors of tax evasion, for which a seizure of approximately US$250 thousand was imposed on Tapia.
For Rodríguez Rey, in Argentina social criticism towards the AFA focuses on two parallel issues. On the one hand, there are judicial investigations focused on economic matters, in which there are multiple causes: two in the United States plus a series of enrichment cases in Argentina.
“On the other hand, and where the erosion of the public image of the AFA and its leadership is most prevalent, is the organization of the local tournament. Argentina has a championship that is too long, exhausting, and it is alleged that Argentine soccer is losing quality. And perhaps on a day-to-day basis what has the greatest weight is the latter. That is, there is increasingly stronger criticism of sporting factors,” says the expert.
He explains that it is in parallel to this that scandals linked to business occur. Furthermore, the fact that the clubs in Argentina are all non-profit associations is no less important.
“So, the election of the president of the Argentine Football Association falls on the presidents of the clubs. The distribution of the money that is collected is done by the AFA. And there are already some very important conditions because, of course, the AFA is a non-profit association. In parallel, all these companies that are related to people who are linked to the AFA organization are beginning to appear. And now they are investigating who the people around them are and what economic situation they are in,” he comments.
“Those two worlds, the business world that surrounds the Argentine Football Association, and the Argentine Football Association organization are beginning to collide,” he concludes.