Paraguayan Alejandro Domínguez, president of Conmebol (South American Football Confederation) who, on Monday (17), shortly after criticizing racist acts, said that Libertadores without Brazil would be “Tarzan without Chita”, spent at least half of his 53 years in leadership positions in sports.
He is the son of one of the leading names in football leadership in Paraguay, Osvaldo Domínguez DIBB (or “Odd”, as he was known), killed last year at the age of 83 after a career in front of Olimpia, when the club became internationally known. The family has Syrian origin.
In his father’s wake, the first positions he held were at Olimpia, where he was a member of the board, interim president and vice. For seven years, Domínguez was also vice president of the Paraguayan Football Association, of which years later, from 2014 to 2016, was president. He arrived at the head of Conmebol in 2016 and occupied the position nine years ago.
The little known part of his career is the fact that Domínguez was also an important entrepreneur in the communication sector. For over 17 years, he has chaired the Nación group of communications, or Nación Media, an important Paraguayan conglomerate that encompasses newspapers, radios and TV channels, including the newspaper La Nación and the chronicle.
He also had management positions at the SIP (Inter-American Press Society), in which he was vice-president of the Press Freedom Commission between 2007 and 2008.
Domínguez studied economy at the University of Kansas, and held a master’s degree at the Catholic University of Asuncion. In an official profile on a social network, he describes himself as someone who comes from a “work family and entrepreneurs and who tries to convey these values in all activities, or not.”
“From a young age I felt the need to take leadership positions, which I have always exercised with responsibility and teamwork. I bet on innovation and creativity to face and solve challenges.”
He was initially elected to the presidency of Conmebol in January 2016. In April 2022, he was reelected, with an current term until 2027. It was during his administration that the Libertadores single final was instituted in 2019. At the time, he said the decision had been made “after rigorous analysis of several technical studies and with the intention of aligning the tournament with international standards.”
With little known personal trajectory outside Paraguay, Alejandro Domínguez is close to other names involved in football in the region, such as former Argentine president Mauricio Macri, who directed Boca Juniors.
Now his name is highlighted only hours after a speech in which he criticized any racist attitude and said that “racism is a scourge that is not born in football, but in societies, but that affects football, and Conmebol is sensitive to this reality.”
He referred to the case of racism against striker Luighi of the Palmeiras under-20 team in the Copa Libertadores game of his category against Cerro Porteño. Conmebol has been the target of criticism for the punishments committed to the crime, and Leila Pereira, president of Palmeiras, suggested that Brazilian clubs leave the South American Confederation and join the Confederation of North, Central and Caribbean America.
That was when after his speech on Monday night, questioned by journalists, he said that an edition of the Copa Libertadores without clubs in Brazil would be like “Tarzan without the cheetah.”
