Claudio Tapia breaks silence on AFA corruption allegations | OneFootball

From the beach, the president of the Argentine Football Association addressed the scandal shaking his administration.

Amidst his vacation in Mar del Plata and with the investigation progressing on the alleged corruption in the AFA and its leaders, Claudio "Chiqui" Tapia distanced himself from the scandal involving Argentine football and claimed that it is all media defamation. "There are two different realities, that of the media and that of the people", he stated.

"I don't pay attention to the other stuff, it's the media", emphasized the AFA president, in a conversation with the newspaper La Nación, as the case investigating corruption in the finances of the football governing body increasingly implicates the leaders.

When asked about how he is handling this moment of scandals with the numbers of the entity he presides over, Tapia said he was "calm". "I am not charged", he argued and stressed that "nothing is happening with the other stuff", regarding the case that places him at the center of the scene along with treasurer Pablo Toviggino and Javier Faroni over fund diversion and unjustified payments.

However, despite his statements, Tapia is indeed charged in a case in the economic criminal court initiated by a complaint from the Revenue and Customs Control Agency (ARCA). Along with the rest of the AFA leadership, prosecutor Claudio Roberto Navas Rial charged them for the alleged improper retention of taxes amounting to about $19 billion.

Far from that reality, Tapia focused on highlighting the popularity he has with the people following the Argentine National Team's victory in the World Cup in Qatar 2022. "This is the truth", he assured, proudly stating that fans constantly ask him for autographs and photos whenever they see him. He even went as far as to say: "My legs hurt from standing up and sitting down for photos, my knees are in misery".

Once again avoiding the accusations that label him as the head of an organization that diverted the entity's income, Tapia affirmed: "The only thing that always worried me was the family, but the kids are grown up now".

Finally, he commented that when he goes out to eat during his vacation, people ask him to "go for the fourth" world star of the Argentine National Team, referring to the tournament to be held this year in the United States, Mexico, and Canada.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.