In the geopolitics of football, Argentina is, without a doubt, one of the global powers. Hotbed of footballers who shine in the best leagues in Europe and land of the two players considered the greatest of all time: Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi. In other words, being the Argentine soccer president is not a simple institutional title. It is one of the most coveted positions in the country, to the point that politics, Justice and businessmen fight to control it, join forces to dispute it or kneel to negotiate with whoever holds it. Because whoever manages the AFA not only manages a sport: he manages an enormous piece of the symbolic and economic power of Argentina.
In that chair today is Claudio Fabián “Chiqui” Tapia, who became president in 2017 as a result of an agreement between the then president Mauricio Macri and the Truckers union member Hugo Moyano. Tapia’s landing seemed more like a staging of powerful figures choosing a subordinate to manage the AFA on behalf of others. But Tapia had a personal power project, inspired by everything he had learned as president of the Barracas Central club, in his admiration for Julio Grondona – who was president of the AFA between 1979 and 2014 -, and in what he learned from the bond with Hugo Moyano, his original political boss, former father-in-law and grandfather of his children.
Tapia has a similar style to Grondona, although a little more rustic and cheeky. He is adept at the centralization of power, the use of favors and positions to build loyalties, the control of arbitration, and the strategic alliance with political power. It reproduces Grondona’s personalistic leadership model, adapting it to current times and making itself visible on networks, but preserving the substance: a system where it concentrates decisions, neutralizes opponents and legitimizes itself through sporting success and institutional loyalty.
Like Grondona with Arsenal de Sarandí, Tapia is the strong man of Barracas Central and his dream is to become champion of the first division. During Grondona’s management, it took Arsenal 16 years to move from the third division to the first. And then it took another 10 years to become champion. Barracas Central went from the third division to the first in just three years during Tapia’s presidency. We have to wait for the championship, but observing the level of anxiety that “Chiqui” handles, that could happen in a short time.
Argentina. If Tapia learned anything from Grondona, it is that the titles of the National Team cover up almost everything. In that area, his management has an enviable fixture: Copa América 2021, Finalissima, World Cup 2022 and another Copa América in 2024. In any soccer country that is enough to name a stand. Tapia has a stadium with his name, Barracas Central.
The key play was supporting Lionel Scaloni when almost no one saw him as a “Selection coach.” Tapia benched him when he was still “the interim” and the locker room was beaten. The cycle ended with Messi lifting the World Cup in Qatar and “Chiqui” among the most powerful men in the world.
The world championship also translated into business. In the last three years, the Argentine team played international friendlies in remote places such as China, Australia, Indonesia, Angola and with teams of very low football level such as Panama, Curacao, Guatemala or El Salvador. In each of those games the AFA would have taken between 5 and 10 million dollars. In the last one, played this month, against Angola, the cache would have amounted to 12 million dollars.
With the support of the Argentine National Team, Tapia went through internal crises, political fights and legal cases. Every time the temperature rises, photos with Messi and posts of the champions appear.
The other side of the National Team’s success is in domestic soccer. That is where the figure of Tapia becomes more discussed. The last setback was to award a trophy to the Rosario Central club for having reached the playoffs of the closing tournament as the leader of the table. All to give Ángel Di María a drink on his return to Rosario. A strategic error of despotic levels in a sport where only those who win on a court in an 11 against 11 match are respected. From then on it was all bad news. The eye was once again placed on the arbitrations, on the authoritarian management within the AFA, the organization of friendlies of the National Team and even the rights of football on TV. In recent weeks, the cause that made the most noise was that of Sur Finanzas, a company linked to the economic fabric of football and main sponsor of Barracas Central and other teams. The company in question is managed by Maximiliano Ariel Vallejo, a financier from Adrogué who sells himself as “the football wallet” and functions as such: loans for clubs on the brink of the abyss – such as San Lorenzo – and agreements with Banfield and Platense.
Sur Finanzas is also the main sponsor of Barracas Central, Tapia’s club, and for two years it even bought the names of the Professional League tournaments. “Copa Sur Finances”, as simple as that. Vallejo speaks without shame about his “very beautiful relationship” with “Chiqui”, which for him is a master key to growing here and abroad. In recent days it emerged that he created companies to do business in different areas in Miami, thinking about the 2026 World Cup.
The outbreak came when the DGI denounced Sur Finanzas for money laundering and evasion. The number is obscene: 818 billion pesos moved through virtual wallets. The scheme includes a battalion of monotributistas who, suddenly, managed figures impossible for their routine. Added to this are trout companies and firms disqualified by the Central Bank. There were raids and an unexpected detachment: the file already touches the bribery route of the National Disability Agency (Andis). There, according to the case, part of the money collected from bribes ended up laundered in the Sur Finanzas crypto app, previously called Neblockchain. PROCELAC investigates an ecosystem of companies linked to Vallejo – some marked as false by ARCA – where over-the-counter dollar purchases and luxury cars appear that do not match the sworn statements. If Justice advances, could it affect the AFA? Those around Tapia look at the case with concern. The “Chiqui” transmits tranquility.
