“The AFA is a private entity,” he stressed. Eduardo Feinmannin the television show that he makes with the cycle Pablo Rossi, and added: “How do you think it works in other clubs?” In the table dialogue between América 24 journalists, the television host referred to the judicial situation that the national soccer entity is experiencing and mentioned the figure of the president of Estudiantes de La Plata, Juan Sebastian Veron. “Do you think Verón is so clean?” he asked.
Although it is not the first time that Feinmann fires a dart at the former national team player, whom he has a deep dislike for, in the conversation between journalists the name of Foster Gillett. The American sports investor had an unsuccessful agreement a few years ago with Verón to make different investments and contracts in the purchase and sale of players. The fact was notorious, since the president of the La Plata club promoted the opening of the Sports Joint Stock Companies that the government of Javier Milei is trying to establish.
The case of Foster Gillett and his connection with Estudiantes de La Plata became one more scandal in Argentine football, mixing transfers, judicial complaints and tensions with the Argentine Football Association (AFA). The sports businessman, with family ties to Liverpool FC, had been presented as a “revolution” for the La Plata club, but, over time, he became the center of several investigations for alleged irregularities in operations with several footballers, including Cristian Medina.
The transfer of Medina, a Boca Juniors midfielder, to Estudiantes was the first focus of controversy. The xeneize institution reported to the AFA that the payment of the termination clause of 15 million dollars was made from Gillett’s personal account, and not directly by the contracting club, which contravenes FIFA’s international rules on transfers. Verón publicly admitted that the agreement played a role in Medina’s arrival, although he denied having full knowledge of the technical details of the arrangement, stating that “the arrangement was between Foster Gillet and Medina, not Estudiantes” and that the club only came into the picture later.
But, the link between the magnate and the “Little Witch” transcended Medina’s case. The group led by Gillet promised investments of around 150 million dollars for infrastructure and reinforcements, with the aim of promoting a management model with the participation of private capital, an approach that was accompanied by Verón and that generated resistance in a large part of the Argentine soccer leadership. However, that relationship was also exposed before the Argentine Justice.
The federal prosecutor Guillermo Marijuan opened a preliminary investigation for possible money laundering linked to player purchase and sale operations in which Foster Gillett and his partner appear Guillermo Tofoni, including cases of Rodrigo Villagra, Valentín Gómez, Ezequiel Piovi and Medina himself. The Estudiantes situation was thus left at a crossroads: on the one hand, the search of the punmarrata leadership to consolidate investments; on the other hand, criticism from the AFA – especially from Pablo Toviggino, treasurer of the entity – who questioned the introduction of private capital without a specific legal framework within Argentine football.
The open conflict over the validity of Medina’s pass and the debate over sports corporations (SAD) in Argentine football have placed Estudiantes at the center of a broader institutional dispute. At the same time, the AFA is experiencing a climate of judicial and political tension that involves its main directors. The president Claudio “Chiqui” Tapia and his right-hand man Toviggino are under federal investigations related to alleged financial irregularities and illicit enrichment, with recent raids on the main headquarters and different clubs, within the framework of a case for alleged money laundering linked to the financial company Sur Finanzas.
Added to this context was a complaint from the senator Patricia Bullrich before him CONMEBOL Ethics Committeewhere he accuses Tapia and Toviggino of ethical violations, conflicts of interest and lack of institutional transparency, which deepens the credibility crisis of the national soccer governing body. The AFA authorities have responded by defending their management and rejecting what they call “political persecution”; However, the judicial and media situation generates an unprecedented scenario that could have an impact in 2026.
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