The Argentine Justice has prohibited leaving the country to Claudio Tapia, president of the Argentine Football Association (AFA) and has summoned him on March 5 to be questioned in a case of alleged tax evasion, according to a ruling published on Thursday by the local press.
Claudio ‘Chiqui’ Tapia, 58, must appear in court following a complaint filed by the tax authority ARCA on suspicion of tax evasion and embezzlement of social security funds worth $13,687 (€11,600). The treasurer of the AFA, Pablo Toviggino, has also been cited. The travel ban also applies to three other agency officials: the director general, Gustavo Roberto Lorenzo, the secretary general, Cristian Ariel Malaspina, and his predecessor, Victor Blanco Rodríguez.
Undated ban
The court ruling establishes that “Given the seriousness of the facts investigated, it is appropriate to impose a travel ban on the aforementioned persons,” without specifying the duration of this measure, in particular whether it will extend until his appearance in court or beyond.
Authorities are investigating whether the AFA illegally withheld retirement contributions from players and employees and did not pay taxes between March 2024 and September 2025.
The judge ruled that there are “sufficient indications to suspect the participation of the mentioned persons in the events investigated”, according to the ruling published by several media outlets.
Other research
In addition to this case, the AFA is also being investigated for alleged money laundering, which led to a raid on its facilities last December.
The Argentine Football Association denounced what it described as “smear campaign” and stated that the businessman responsible for the lawsuit, who had been removed from the organization of friendly matches of the current world champions, had “the support of the national government, specifically the Minister of Justice, Mariano Cuneo Libarona.”
The relations between Claudio Tapia, who has directed Argentine football since 2017 and has experience in union activism, and the president’s government Javier Milei They are tense.
Tapia is fundamentally opposed to the idea of transforming Argentine soccer clubs, traditionally in the hands of their associates, into sports corporations open to foreign investment, a model supported by Milei.
