Sample button. Another one for the officials. The plundering of the emotion transmitted between grandparents, parents, and children, with stories, characters, legends, and teachers, gathered in pastures, neighborhoods, and clubs, began during the era of dictatorship. Criminal admiral Carlos Lacoste, responsible for the 78 World Cup, a River City fan who had left huge debts due to the overpricing of the stadium’s construction, in 1979 granted the authority of the AFC to Julio Grondona, the president of Independiente. From this chair, Grondona sponsored the creation of a Mafia “family”. Through favours, trips, positions, perks and the purchase of leaders, he expanded his fraudulent administration into FIFA. If he wasn’t dead he would be in prison.
In the “land of non-agreement” described by Maria Elena Walsh, we must insist on remembering it. The Swiss bank Julius Baer admitted before a New York court that it had deposited bribes worth thirty million dollars in the name of “Don Julio,” as some journalists called him. Twenty-five million were transferred to their children. Alejandro Burzaco, Tournaments and Competitions (TyC), and Jorge Luis Arzuaga, CEO of the bank, confessed to receiving a cell in exchange for an anklet. This is only part of what has been proven. Every night, the surviving partners kiss the ring on which the capo engraves: “Everything passes.”
The referees blow the whistle. Like Arsenal Sarandë with Grondona, Paracas Central rose from B Nacional to first place with Tapia. Arsenal’s stadium, built by Quimeros, is called Grondona. The guy from Paracas, Claudio “Czech” Tapia. With Grondona, ten teams were promoted, and another ten votes were cast in the elections. Tapia said he only wanted twenty in the top flight, but eliminated relegation midway through the tournament to keep thirty.
Authoritarians don’t like this
The practice of professional and critical journalism is an essential pillar of democracy. This is why it bothers those who believe they are the bearers of the truth.
Cover the trash. A permanent position at Ceamse since he was an employee of a company linked to his then father-in-law, Hugo Moyano. Due to agreements concluded between Moyano, Rodríguez Larreta and Diego Santelli, he was vice president. In 2023 he asked to vote for Massa. According to Kiselov, at the end of last year he became president of Chimsi. Do you work there? when? Did you distribute the positions that gave votes in the AFC? Assets, wealth and travel expenses, empty.
Recycled, silent tapia. Hire waste collection at AFA. He did not explain his relationship with Ariel Vallejo, of Sur Finanzas, a laundry, vacuuming and cleaning company. The secretary of the Argentine Football Association’s Ethics Court, Pablo Caruso, warned at the time that in the administration there was “no transparency at all.” He erased the dead Grondona name from the Ezeiza estate, discarded the dead Maradona name, and chose the name Messi, which he keeps alive. A luxurious office in the property, and another on the eighth floor in Miami. In all of these pictures hang with the cups won by the national team.
The AFA plays a little game with the rules. Hero dedication to Rosario Central. The legitimate title continues to be celebrated less and less. The most important thing is to qualify for the Libertadores and Sudamericana Cups, where money is collected in hard currency. “Club owners” pay monthly fees, subscriptions, tickets, “rags,” and proceeds from “bars.” The lower divisions accelerate children’s export training. Actors, coaches, leaders, supposed journalists and those involved in business promote the sale of new “gems” abroad. When players are sold for millions, there is no small profit for the partners.
If you saw José López swinging bags in the monastery, Insorralde on the yacht, you know the origins of Lázaro Páez, of the Kirchner family, and you now hear the testimonies in the overpricing and bribery trials, the confessions of the businessmen who paid the bribes, the officials who received those bribes, the secretaries who took them south. Although it is known, and admitted, that it is finally accepted that it is not possible to understand why someone stole so much, it is possible to understand why it became Football has smelled very bad for years, in the hands of a gang of criminals who have their own justice, without state control, and without independent prosecutors.
Corruption makes everything it touches nonsense.
*Writer and journalist.