It looks almost like a scene from a movie. The Argentine national football team, who had just won the Copa América, is on a charter flight at JFK Airport while federal agents question them in a quiet, pointed way on the tarmac outside. There were no handcuffs or dramatic arrests. There are federal agents, a bus that is parked, and thirty minutes of talking about things that no one wants to talk about.
Airport witnesses say that FBI agents talked to Claudio Tapia, president of the AFA, and Pablo Toviggino, treasurer of the AFA, on Monday morning as Argentina’s team got ready to fly home. It was said that the questioning took about thirty minutes. Argentine news outlets, such as Infobae, said that agents asked to see Tapia’s electronic devices. The U.S. government, on the other hand, refused to say anything.
The AFA’s answer was quick and clear. The group said that the reports were “completely untrue” and “absolutely false,” insisting that neither Tapia nor Toviggino had been called before a U.S. court, that no devices had been seized, and that neither official had been put under any personal legal measures. In a quiet and careful way, they did admit that a U.S. district court in Florida had sent a summons to a third party, someone connected to the federation, asking that person to appear before a grand jury and produce documents related to several people, including AFA officials.
It is hard not to notice how sharply that denial is made. The statement goes into great detail about what did not happen to Tapia and Toviggino, but it leaves a lot of room for what might be happening to other people in the organization’s circle.
This is not the first time the AFA has been looked at by the law. In December, Argentine police raided homes as part of an investigation into money laundering that involved the whole country. There is also a separate investigation into tax evasion going on. Infobae says that U.S. authorities are looking into more than $300 million in business contracts related to the AFA. If this number is correct, it means that the investigation is much deeper than just a small financial problem.
Tapia has been in charge of the AFA since 2017 and is now one of the most powerful people in South American football. As a former member of a trade union, he has made the federation a strong organization, but this has not gone without criticism. Tapia has been a vocal opponent of Milei’s push to privatize football clubs, which puts him in a strange political position at a time when he is also under pressure from U.S. law enforcement. His relationship with President Javier Milei’s administration has become openly tense. Still not clear is how these two tensions affect each other or even if they affect each other at all.
What really makes things unclear is the difference between what was reported and what was confirmed. Witnesses said that officials were being held and phones were being taken. In a statement, the AFA denied all of it. The FBI didn’t say anything. The Port Authority sent questions to other places. When you look at this from the outside, it seems like different versions of what happened are vying for attention. It may take some time for the full picture to become clear.
This kind of investigation rarely ends quickly. In the United States, grand jury proceedings are meant to be private. This means that the public may not find out for months who the third party was summoned or what the investigation is about. What is clear, though, is that the American government is now paying close attention to Argentine football’s finances, and that doesn’t go away easily.
There is currently no response from the AFA or the FBI. A grand jury in Florida is asking questions that someone connected to Argentina’s most important football organization will have to answer.
