A new scandal involving the Argentine Football Association (AFA) and its president, Claudio “Chiqui” Tapia, has left FIFA worried just a few months before the 2026 World Cup.
Complaints and investigations by the Argentine Justice, involving the use of oranges, illicit enrichment, tax evasion and fraud threaten the highest body of Argentine football with political intervention, which could even lead to the exclusion of the current world champion from the tournament that will be held in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
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This Friday, the Argentine government’s Customs Control and Revenue Agency (ARCA) filed a complaint against the Argentine Football Association (AFA) and its president, Claudio “Chiqui” Tapia, for alleged misappropriation of 7.5 billion pesos in taxes and social security funds, the equivalent of R$28.1 million, according to the newspaper The Nation.
According to the publication, the complaint was forwarded to the Federal Economic Criminal Court after an audit of AFA’s contributions, which concluded that contributions and withholdings were “not paid within the legal deadline”. ARCA accused AFA of withholding taxes and social security contributions to finance itself illicitly, postponing payments to the State for more than 300 days.
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For the IRS, this implies that the Argentine Football Association used public resources for its own purposes. The complaint argues that the delay in filing “implies financing by the taxpayer through the use of amounts that are clearly not part of its assets.”
The accusation adds to other complaints and judicial investigations that put pressure on the management of Argentine football’s highest governing body for possible money laundering and fraud. The police carried out operations in more than 15 nightclubs, in an office in the center of Buenos Aires and seized 52 luxury vehicles that belonged to AFA leaders.
