“I am the vice president of the world.” Julio Grondona, 26-year-old vice president of the powerful FIFA, where he chaired three committees, once said. One of them was that of Finance.
Don Julio didn’t know English, but he understood numbers. He had joined the AFA in 1978, just like Finance and Finance Minister.
Economics Minister of country of football, that later He presided for 35 years.
A sovereign country rising to power on a map of internal codes and powerful passions, the veins that feed the great Argentine football heart. Which politician would want to cause cardiac arrhythmias there?
Grondona’s AFA was also raided several times, particularly as the titles dwindled. Impossible before.
The Argentine national team took part in three world finals in twelve years, from 1978 to 1990. She won two. So taking on the AFA meant taking on Kempes or Maradona.
Back in 1996, a judge sued Grondona for maneuvering in a doping case.
After the penultimate matchday of the tournament, Maradona took control for Boca and Martín Vargas for Deportivo Español. One sample tested positive. Vargas. It was reported that someone I had changed the glasses.
As soon as he learned of his prosecution, Grondona only whispered: “The holidays are starting now, so I’m going to the country. When I get back, we’ll talk.”. I was on the way back dismissed by the Federal Chamber.
Chiqui Tapia was born not for financial reasons, but rather from the network of promotion clubs that Grondona invented to always win. A small club votes in the same way as a large one. You can count the big ones on the fingers of one hand. If the children vote for you, which is ten times more, you win. Financial support will do the rest.
In it Football country functions: Clientelism makes you a fiefdom.
Tapia – from San Juan, then son-in-law of Hugo Moyano – led Barracas Central and joined the AFA Executive Committee as the main reference for the C clubs.
With his promotion, Barracas rose.
The news about benevolent arbitration procedures for the “Moyano’s son-in-law” They were already leafy 10 years ago. In 2021, Barracas reached the Primera.
If Barracas de Tapia is Grondona’s Arsenal (the small club from Sarandí that won leagues and cups until Grondona died and the club collapsed), then Qatar 2022 is its Mexico 86. And Messi, its Maradona.
Before the wave of raids of these hours, Tapia responded to the journalist Mariano Dayan from Olé about the suspicious arbitration procedures: “With Grondona there were also proposals for arbitration.”
The thing is with Grondona, the referees They also whistled for power.
some of it Feeling of impunity who encouraged Don Julio to show off his famous ring Everything passes – he died before the massive FifaGate prosecutions, in which witness statements attributed him to a relevant role in the distribution of bribes – must have led to Tapia invent a drink to Rosario Central.
Perhaps another exaggerated gesture of love for Messi, who then saw his friend Di María’s wish come true.
This act of extreme autocracy This initially triggered a wave of real indignation among the fans, which only Sebastián Verón and his proud Estudiantes dared to trigger among the front runners.
And immediately there is a multiple investigation of a financial company that Tapia and his alter ego Toviggino recommended to apparently drowned people in order to get them out of the water, and this unfolds an episodic saga Dirt Handbook: Miami businesses that open in two days and close after two months; Villas in the name of pensioners; Private jets, yachts and luxury watches that are nothing but Suitcase full of cash on your wrist.
A difficult time for the AFA kings, who should sort out justice before the ball rolls again at the World Cup in June.
Later, when the country is in blue and white mode, it may never be resolved.
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