Argentina’s World Cup Glory Cannot Buy Silence on Corruption -By Fransiscus Nanga Roka

Argentina is chasing back to back World Cup titles while its football federation is quietly negotiating with the FBI. That contradiction should embarrass every institution that has become used to thinking that sport is above money and power. It’s not. The Argentine Football Association (AFA) is now the subject of a federal investigation into more than $300 million flowing through the US banking system and FIFA, sponsors and much of the football press has been silent.

Let’s be precise about what is alleged. AFA’s commercial and sponsorship revenue was funneled through at least five major U.S. financial institutions, raising questions about fraud and money laundering. TourProdEnter LLC, a Florida based company that is believed to have helped AFA generate at least $260 million in revenue, is at the center. There is another $57 million that went to companies and beneficiaries whose economic rationale is murky as well. The investigation is looking into possible fraud and money laundering with those hundreds of millions of dollars that have been sent by U.S. based banks and companies..

This is not a rogue bookkeeper pilfering petty cash. Indeed, this is the financial framework of the Australian national governing body, the same organisation that brands itself as a custodian of Lionel Messi’s legacy and peddles the emotional currency of a nation to sponsors overseas, allegedly moving sponsorship cash through entity like vessels without much business purpose. Much of it moved through Florida-based companies with ties to people associated with AFA, while tens of millions more were sent without any clear commercial rationale at all.

Instead, AFA’s actions have been more reactive and defensive than transparent. The federation clarifies that no document compelled president Claudio “Chiqui” Tapia or treasurer Pablo Toviggino to attend noon court, and that there was no legal demand or property detachment against them. AFA has insisted Tapia’s two communication devices were not seized and that there was no personal service of an examination summons at an airport by the Melbourne based director. Note what that denial does not say: It is not denying that $300 million is even at issue. It still doesn’t identify the $57 million with no obvious purpose. Not an accountant’s, but a lawyer’s denial.

Yes, it is still a preliminary grand jury investigation. U.S. federal charges are nonexistent, and no AFA official has been convicted of any wrongdoing. Handling does not matter and irresponsible verdict with out evidence. The silence on this story so damning is that due process precisely. FIFA has fashioned an empire around the sanctity of its World Cup brand, and vaporized several times with all the ugly financial plumbing that abides below its member federations, Qatar postdated by Russia and now maybe Argentina. Yes, the sponsors behind AFA are, so far as they are aware, subsidising an organization currently being investigated by American federal investigatory authorities concerning hundreds of millions in lost wages.

The uncomfortable truth is this: Football’s governing bodies have developed a model where success on the field provides an excuse to gloss over chaos off of it. The victory in Miami or New York does not dismiss a federal investigation at the same time. If American prosecutors ultimately do end up confirming what Argentine reporting has made clear, this will not be a case of a disaster in Buenos Aires, but one of a global sport that has long accepted opacity in terms of finances as a necessary condition for business. Argentina’s fans deserve a federation that is as clean as its trophy cabinet. At the moment, nobody can truly say that they are.

Fransiscus Nanga Roka

Faculty of Law University 17 August 1945 Surabaya and Managing Partner Law Firm Victorious Indonesia