AFA President Claudio Tapia testifies in tax withholding case

The president of the AFA, Claudio “Chiqui” Tapia, appeared this Thursday to testify in the courts of the Economic Criminal Court in the framework of the case for the alleged retention of taxes and social security contributions for 19.300 million pesos. At the exit, Tapia said that he “fulfilled what the Justice wanted”. The judge also prohibited both from leaving the country, four months before the World Cup in the United States, although later granted Tapia the corresponding permission. The case investigates the alleged misappropriation of more than $19.353 million corresponding to tax withholdings and social security contributions between March 2024 and September 2025. As part of this situation, last weekend there was a football strike in all categories in support of the clubs to the AFA against what they consider a political initiative promoted by the management of Javier Milei in the midst of the struggle for the implementation of the SAD (Sociedades Anónimas Deportivas), which the Government promotes and Tapia and company reject. The statement was before Judge Diego Amarante, after this Wednesday the AFA's treasurer, Pablo Toviggino, did the same, presenting a written statement as part of the same investigation. In that writing, Tapia “categorically and circumstantially denied having decided, ordered, executed or deliberately consented to the non-payment of taxes or resources of the social security withheld by the AFA”, and rejected “having had any intervention, interference or personal decision on the matter under questioning”. For the leader, the AFA “is imputed as suspect of a willful conduct regarding obligations that it never hid, never disguised and that it also regularized without having yet known the existence of the cause”. In the file, it is sought to determine if there were irregularities in the withholding and payment of taxes linked to Argentine football, in a case that also reaches other AFA leaders and generated a strong repercussion in the sporting and political sphere. Tapia's defense had unsuccessfully requested that the summons for a statement of charges be declared null.