AFA ends year in turmoil: money laundering, corruption claims | OneFootball

The Argentine Football Association (AFA) closes a difficult year filled with controversies on the field and with the Justice Department investigating it amid the case linking it to the company Sur Finanzas.

From the very beginning, the governing body of Argentine football started the year in a dispute with the National Government led by the President of the Nation, Javier Milei, over the introduction of Sports Corporations (Sociedades Anónimas Deportivas) with Estudiantes de La Plata as the flagship and the American magnate Foster Gillett as an investor.

Fortunately for the AFA, the discussion faded as the year progressed and Gillett disappeared overnight, once again leaving Estudiantes de La Plata at the mercy of its management led by Juan Sebastián Verón and the Government unable to win its battle to bring Sports Corporations into Argentine football.

Because of this, the governing body of Argentine football spent most of the year in relative peace and with a normal development of its competitions and national teams.

However, criticism of president Claudio Tapia grew exponentially at the beginning of November when, in the playoffs for the second promotion to the Professional League, Deportivo Madryn defeated Deportivo Morón 1-0 with controversial refereeing decisions, the ‘Gallo’ coach Walter Otta suspended due to “fake news”, Morón players repressed by the police, and a statement from the president of the southern club, Ricardo Sastre: “With Tapia and Toviggino, it’s easier for us.”

Just one day after this match, the controversy traveled to the south of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, where Barracas Central, the team of Matías Tapia, drew 1-1 with Huracán and qualified for the round of 16 of the Professional League’s Clausura Tournament.

Even worse was what happened that Friday, when in an Executive Committee meeting and without a formal vote from the representatives, Rosario Central, Ángel Di María’s team, was crowned League champion for having the most points in the annual table for this season.

This sparked outrage throughout much of Argentine football, except among several sycophantic officials, and without backing down, the AFA forced Estudiantes de La Plata to give Rosario Central a champion’s guard of honor in the corresponding round of 16 match in the province of Santa Fe.

In an image that went around the world, the ‘Pincha’ performed the guard of honor but with their backs turned as a sign of protest against the Rosario team and, as if that weren’t enough, they beat them 1-0 with a goal by Colombian Edwin Cetré.

This resulted in Estudiantes de La Plata players being sanctioned with two-match suspensions, to be served in the next Apertura Tournament, and six months of disqualification for president Verón for encouraging the players to commit that act.

With the focus on refereeing both in the Professional League and in the Primera Nacional, these normalized and left the outcome of both tournaments in the hands of the players.

Finally, Deportivo Madryn lost promotion to the elite of Argentine football to Estudiantes de Rio Cuarto and the ‘Pincha’ of La Plata ended up winning the Clausura Tournament by defeating Racing 5-4 on penalties in Santiago del Estero, with their president Verón unable to receive the champion’s medal due to his disqualification.

As if that weren’t enough in a year in which Estudiantes chose to confront the AFA, the team led by Eduardo Domínguez won the Champions Trophy on Saturday by defeating Platense 2-1 at the Estadio Único de San Nicolás.

Although the sporting side balanced out by force in recent days, at the same time an institutional crisis exploded as the Justice Department targeted the company Sur Finanzas, strongly linked to the AFA, over the transfer of Agustín Urzi from Banfield to Juárez in Mexico.

This investigation splashed, intentionally or not, the governing body of Argentine football, which was raided at its Viamonte Street headquarters in downtown Buenos Aires and at the Lionel Andrés Messi Complex in Ezeiza. The same procedure affected nearly 30 clubs linked to the financial company, including San Lorenzo, Independiente, and Racing.

Days later, the Justice Department ordered a raid on an estate in the Buenos Aires municipality of Pilar, which is supposedly related to the AFA treasurer, Pablo Toviggino. There, 54 cars were seized, 45 of them luxury vehicles, as well as seven motorcycles and two go-karts.

Among the most expensive cars were a Porsche 911 Carrera, an Audi R8 5.2 Plus Quattro 2018, another Porsche Carrera S, and a Ferrari F430, valued at US$480,200, 396,800, 387,600, and 280,000, respectively.

In response, the person who stepped up to challenge the AFA leadership’s resistance was the national senator from La Libertad Avanza, Patricia Bullrich, who filed a complaint against Tapia and Toviggino with the Conmebol Ethics Tribunal to have them investigated.

This sparked a back-and-forth on social media between Bullrich and Toviggino, who, without mincing words, attacked the former Security Minister over the company “Tostado”, chaired by her son and accused of using bad checks and million-dollar invoices.

2026 will be an especially eventful year for the AFA, as the senior national football team will compete in the World Cup in the United States, Mexico, and Canada, where they will have to defend their championship title—something all of Argentina hopes will happen.

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