BUENOS AIRES, December 6, 2025 – In a move that sent strong political and judicial tremors, the Federal Oral Court No. 1 in Comodoro Py unanimously acquitted former Cabinet Chiefs Aníbal Fernández and Jorge Capitanich in the 'Fútbol para Todos' case. The ruling nullified the prosecution's accusation and abruptly closed one of the most emblematic corruption files of the last decade.
The resolution leaves a bitter institutional aftertaste: after years of investigation, expert reports, testimonies, and procedures, the case is closed without clear explanations and without a judicial reconstruction of the facts alleged in the complaint.
In a country where corruption scandals often fade without firm convictions, the simultaneous acquittal during the biggest sporting event of the year seems to have crowned a controversial and opportunistically silent closure. This has reignited the debate over the lack of accountability in state-funded programs and institutional responsibility for the management of public funds for sports dissemination purposes.
The particular timing between the ruling and the World Cup draw was pointed out by the opposing political sphere, which interpreted the maneuver as a strategy to minimize the impact of a high-voltage acquittal. For many observers, the chosen time functioned as a smokescreen aimed at reducing the ruling's impact.
The verdict, communicated succinctly from Comodoro Py, stated that the Prosecutor's Office had not presented a valid accusation due to insufficient grounding, failure to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the gathered evidence, and not formulating solidly motivated conclusions.
The judicial case lasted almost ten years, and, despite the expectations of a large part of society, it now concludes without a single oral debate on the responsibility of its top administrators.
The ruling also annulled the request for the seizure of over 450 million pesos that the Prosecutor's Office had claimed as presumed damage to the State.
While hundreds of media outlets were broadcasting the international ceremony live, the court was issuing a verdict of enormous historical, social, and economic sensitivity.
Public discussion continues, but the 'Fútbol para Todos' case remains once again confined to the realm of suspicions, far from the definitions that were once expected.
The ruling came at a strikingly chosen moment: when public attention was almost entirely focused on the 2026 World Cup draw, a global event that dominated the media agenda.
'Fútbol para Todos' was one of the most questioned programs of the last Kirchnerist era, due to its fiscal cost, the opacity in fund distribution, the lack of serious audits, and suspicions of political favoritism.
Several analysts emphasized that this was not a coincidence: the date and time allowed a case that had made headlines for years to go almost unnoticed at the moment of its judicial conclusion.
The immediate precedent of the ruling helps to understand its relevance.
