The AFA investigation is so explosive and could involve so many political and football leaders that it now appears that no one has ever walked through the Villa Rosa house that the newspapers attribute to two monotributists. As if it were inhabited by ghosts and even the grass mowed itself. However, the evidence collected during the raids and some informal testimonies explain the reason for so much unrest: judges, chambermaids, mayors and some governors or ministers of Alberto Fernández’s government with political intentions were there. That’s why they called it “the house of power.”
It’s natural that there are a few nervous ones. “It’s not that in football you deal with crises badly: they create them directly,” complained a political leader who feels like a friend of Claudio Tapia and now admits that the trigger for everything was the symbolic title of Rosario Central: without this decision, which brought public attention to the issue, the discussion would not have gone beyond another complaint from the citizens’ coalition.
The case touches on so many bare wires that even the judge is suspicious. The information that Marcelo Aguinsky received yesterday from the Ministry of Justice about the cars found in the raid by Daniel Rafecas, the former judge, is incomplete: they are records from 2021. Aguinsky had just gotten into an altercation the day before with federal police employees who work in the Palermo warehouse, where everything confiscated from the vehicles is kept. A journalist, Bruno Yacono, had shown green ID cards on TN, about which the judge had no information in the record, and which were in the name of a son and the wife of Pablo Toviggino, treasurer of the AFA. Crucial evidence to determine the true owner of the Villa Rosa house. Had someone passed it on to the press from there? The police told him that they hadn’t seen them because the cards were in a box.
Since it is money laundering, Aguinsky must investigate the previous crime. Do Ana Lucía Conte and Luciano Nicolás Pantano, the alleged owners of the property, have sufficient resources? Or are they frontmen? The judge is also considering whether the central bank must provide information about companies abroad.
So far the scandal has favored the government. So much so that political leaders with good relations with Tapia and Toviggino are deducing the impossible, an agreement between Elisa Carrió and Milei. The agreement between the complainants and the executive appears to be more of a coincidence. Although, as Santiago Caputo’s team admits, Tapia is something of an ideal ideological opponent for Milei. This is supported by our own measurements: 75% of those surveyed welcome the counterpoint to what they see as a corrupt power and support the government’s statements about it. Equally relentless is the word cloud that appears frequently in these polls: there are many negative reviews against the man from San Juan and barely 20% are for him, including those who are just grateful that they won the World Cup. A wake-up call for many football executives whose posts and statements reveal a certain discrepancy with the way they are perceived.
The day before yesterday, without going any further, Barracas Central celebrated the anniversary of the 2022 World Cup on the networks with a poster that shows Messi, Dibu, Di María, De Paul and the rest of the Qatar team, almost like ants, at the feet of a giant Tapia lifting the trophy.
But this crisis is strong enough to shake everything up. A month ago, the president of the AFA seemed untouchable. There are governors and businessmen who still remember the ovation with which the public received him on March 5, 2023 at the San Isidro Ranch in Mendoza during the Solidarity Harvest. Daniel Vila, owner of the field, and a number of ministers, from Sergio Massa to Eduardo de Pedro to Victoria Tolosa Paz, applauded. Qatar’s clean and jerky play left many dreaming too much. And Tapia, who had already started movements to run for governor of San Juan in 2014, after the first Copa América, began dreaming about the idea of becoming president. He didn’t hide it.
That’s why this scandal represents a turning point. Even for the student delegates in the AFA, who had quietly objected to Verón’s criticism of the leadership before the conflict and are now standing up. It is no coincidence that Mercado Libre, one of Argentina’s most thriving companies, has decided to become an expert sponsor. “Now it is more attractive to sponsor Estudiantes than the league,” they admitted in a sponsorship group of several clubs.
The relationship is also reconsidered in Peronism. It’s been days since there’s been a single photo, hug or tweet from someone with Tapia. Questions about strategy also arise: no leader, not even in football, is able to manage so many sectors at the same time. “The little guy is brave,” is the definition of someone in politics who loves him and now accuses him of not having been a better student of Grondona. Julio, remember, was modest and reserved about Arsenal’s ambitions; Chiqui, on the other hand, dreamed that Barracas would become champions.
The cause also has several mysterious points of unexpected significance. And for now, too many injuries for a sector that has long managed millions of dollars in illicit money. In these areas, there is no more effective way to generate spontaneous regret than failing to comply on time. For example, have you paid for the house at Villa Rosa in full? Or was there an outstanding fee on the operation? What is the reason for the silence of Juan Pablo Beacon, the employee who knows most of Toviggino’s secrets and who stopped publishing tweets in September? Is it true that you have legal needs and have been left with an unpaid lawyer? Will those involved speak? It will not be the case that Ana Conte, choir singer at a Protestant church in Caballito, continues her habit of singing.
Tapia flees to FIFA. His photos with Infantino are almost worth more than the Qatar trophy. That’s why the government prefers to proceed cautiously. It is limited to adhering to the formalities of a conflict moving forward alone. The communication from the General Inspectorate of Justice to the AFA, for example, which gave the Viamonte company 20 working days to respond to the accounts. A busy January is just around the corner.
In the meantime, Casa Rosada will continue to monitor the investigation. Who else could I spray? There are already diverse and unimaginable consequences. For example, if the lawsuit that the UIF filed a year ago against exchange offices and banks advances at the same time and fails in the Servini Court, how many financial institutions could be involved behind a deal that, for now, exposes Ariel Vallejo and Elías Piccirillo, but which has more protagonists? Isn’t there a Macrista? Massist? Nobody has anything to do with the government? Entrepreneur? Banker? Miami adventurer?
It will depend on the evidence of both judges. Since yesterday, Aguinsky has been looking for a very serious problem: he asked the municipality of Pilar for the street cameras in the area to determine whether someone had quietly moved the horses from Villa Rosa to another location. Just like the documents of the residents of the house, obtaining them should not be difficult. Ghosts don’t exist, horses don’t fly.
About The Author
