More bad news is coming and the government is causing a stir

The national government believes that the Argentine Football Federation managed multimillion-dollar funds with serious inconsistencies over the past eight years, which coincided with the inauguration of Claudio “Chiqui” Tapia as president. Official sources expanded Clarion that the General Inspectorate of Justice wants to know what it has spent on since March 2017, one hundred and eleven million nine hundred and forty-seven thousand dollars. They asked the AFA several times and never received an answer. If necessary, the committee decides on the appointment a veedor who opens the company’s numbers Football and the auditors who signed the balance sheets to ask for explanations. The same measures would be taken with the Super League, where the missing declarations would amount to more than 300 million dollars.

Adding to these complaints are three other strong facts involving Tapia and Pablo Toviggino, as well as several of their partners and alleged frontmen. On Friday, the judiciary carried out a raid on a mansion in Pilar that has a stable, sports fields and a helipad – attributed to Tapia and Toviggino – and seized 54 luxury and collector vehicles that specialists believe could have a total value of 54 between 3 and 5 million dollars.

On the same day, the General Directorate of Taxes filed a criminal complaint against AFA for tax embezzlement and withholding of pension contributions amounting to more than seven billion pesos. In the complaint, the government agency emphasizes that the AFA “He was aware of his status as an agent who withheld taxes and social security contributions (since he had actually made such withholdings) and was able to discharge those obligations.”. The DGI demands action against this “the authors, co-authors, accomplices, aiders or instigators of the facts.” The penalties provided for in the criminal code range from two to six years in prison.

The perfect storm against the leadership of the AFA ends with the arrest of the treasurer of Sur Finanzas, Micaela Sánchez, her driver and another woman who worked in the financial firm of Ariel Vallejo, a man closely linked to Tapia who went from having an office in Adrogué to opening branches in different parts of the country and even in Miami, where he had six. which decided to close when the scandal broke. The AFIP denounced that Sur Finanzas transferred 820 billion pesos in possible bribes and money laundering.

The government on the one hand and the judiciary on the other have papers, documents, testimonies and secret files that could reveal an impressive cycle of irregular management of millions of pesos and dollars by the AFA. Sources from both sectors assure that more important news would follow. Coming soon. Maybe in the next few days.

Over the last week, Tapia went into shock. He believes that there is an operation against him that was planned a long time ago and there was no reason for it to be carried out. Much to his chagrin, he admits that it was a serious mistake after promoting the championship for Rosario Central. He would also regret his fight with Estudiantes de La Plata and especially with Sebastián Verón, the club’s owner, who was punished in an unprecedented manner for six months. These situations put him in the crosshairs of the storm and triggered a wave of criticism against him on the networks and in everyday conversations that might not have been possible if it had only been an investigation into an act of corruption. The leader of a large team at Tapia’s side explains: “Chiqui has gone mambo. He thought he was untouchable and now he wants to kill himself and is asking for help.”

These requests for help would have reached Lionel Messi himself, with whom Tapia always maintained an excellent relationship that catapulted both of them to football fame at the last World Cup. But Messi is Messi: his angelic smile doesn’t stop him from dribbling on and off the pitch. It is always difficult to guess their intentions. Tapia looked for a photo with the star amid the legal bullets that hit him for the first time, and Messi dodged him. If the captain evades, the rest of the national team players do the same. First her, then Tapia. Autumn is hard.

There is speculation that the road to next year’s World Cup, to be held in the United States, could be difficult even if the players Scaloni picked are among the favorites. The weather turned sour in no time. It is important to remember that there were already many people – including judges and parts of the judicial family that make up the AFA’s disciplinary, ethics and application courts – who were demanding tickets and boxes to take part in the first round.

The fact that the football boss was cornered and the media displayed maximum Argentine passion opened a great opportunity for social distraction for the government, which is these days pushing forward in Congress a package of initiatives, the axis of which is labor reform, opposed by the CGT and Peronism. “Buying time and having someone else’s attention is always good.”“, admit the communication brain of La Libertad Avanza.

It’s not just the legislative package. The executive branch is piling up problems amid a dollar shortage – a constant complaint of the IMF – and an economy that shows some worrisome data. We would not be facing such growth “diving fart,” as the President promised in April this year. In the last twenty-two months, nearly 20,000 businesses have closed and approximately 260,000 workers have lost their jobs. This is data from the Undersecretary of State for Occupational Hazards.

Inflation could be a yellow light for Milei’s immediate future. The permanent decline in the index recorded by Indec in the first year and a half of his term – from the shocking 211 percent left by the government of Alberto Fernández – has always been considered the greatest libertarian achievement and one of the reasons that made his electoral victory possible. In the last six months, however, the trend has been upwards. November saw jumps of 2.5%, marking the largest increase in the past seven months. The most optimistic voices in the government had speculated that inflation would start at one or even zero this month of the year. Milei had said that inflation will be destroyed in August 2026. They say he stopped saying it.

Cristina’s reappearance, casually to talk about inflation and show an old photo of Patricia Bullrich, gave the government an additional reason to breathe. Every time Cristina shows up, The ruling party smiles and Peronism suffers. The mirror with the past is a lifeline. This is all the more true since the trial in the Cuadernos de los Coimas case provides new testimonies every day about how the distribution of black money from the public works that ended in the Kirchner house and even in the Olivos presidential residence worked.

With this and other invaluable help, Milei gradually begins the installation Re-election plan. Just as he ran for parliament in 2021 and announced the next day that he would run for president in 2023, now he is not hiding the fact that he has a project that runs until 2031. He says it and his most loyal employees repeat it in conversations with business people and journalists. They affirm that the path seems to have been paved and they pray that the opposition continues as it is today, stumbling, and without showing any signs of understanding for the new world.