Given the publication, in recent days, once again, of various journalistic information of a biased and unsubstantiated nature, the Argentine Football Association (AFA) expresses its most energetic rejection of the defamation campaign directed against the Institution itself, its President Claudio Tapia and its Treasurer Pablo Toviggino.
Given this, it is worth clarifying that the AFA maintains a current contract with the firm TourProdenter LLC, through which said company was designated as commercial agent of this Association for its representation in economic and commercial matters abroad. This contractual relationship has been duly submitted to the analysis of different Courts, both in the Argentine Republic and in the United States, without any irregularity having been detected.
It is worth remembering that the businessman Guillermo Tofoni, who seems not to resign himself to judicial decisions that are NOT favorable to him, either on his own or at the request of those who pursue certain interests, filed a complaint before the Argentine justice system within the framework of the CFP case 1294/2023, entitled “Tapia Claudio Fabián s/fraud due to disruption of rights and infringement of art. 303”, linked to the sponsorship and organization of friendly matches of the National Team, particularly those disputed in the People’s Republic of China. In this process, both the AFA and its President were dismissed on September 6, 2023, a decision that was confirmed by the Federal Criminal and Correctional Chamber (Chamber I) in November of that year and, subsequently, by the Federal Criminal Cassation Chamber in April 2024, leaving the judicial file definitively closed in our country. Even so, and despite the forcefulness of the rulings, the file was closed only in the courts, but not in certain newspaper headlines that, of course, were never reported or accounted for the dismissals.
In this context, after these setbacks, Mr. Guillermo Tofoni, with the consent of the National Government, more precisely the Minister of Justice Dr. Cúneo Libarona who supported Tofoni in his demands with letters signed as a representative of the National State, and the support of important media outlets in the country, promoted new actions and public campaigns against the AFA and its authorities, with the obvious objective of generating a climate of delegitimization and institutional destabilization.
As part of this strategy, he filed a complaint against the firm TourProdenter LLC before the courts of the State of Florida, in order to investigate its link with this Association. Said judicial process was recently rejected in all its parts and archived, confirming once again the legality and legitimacy of the existing commercial relationship between the AFA and TourProdenter LLC.
In this way, both the Argentine and American justice systems have had full opportunity to evaluate the contractual relationship between the parties, concluding that it is duly adjusted to the law.
Far from accepting these statements, in recent days publications have once again been disseminated that, without carrying out the minimum verifications or corresponding investigations, speak of alleged irregularities in the administration of AFA funds abroad, particularly in the United States. These statements, presented as “investigations”, have, strictly speaking, a SINGLE source: old judicial presentations promoted by Mr. Guillermo Tofoni, replicated in different international settings after the repeated failures obtained in court, recycled again and again, now amplified without further analysis by some media.
It is striking then that, in the face of firm and definitive judicial rulings, certain communicators continue to present with a tone of scoop what has already been ruled out by the Courts, feeding a narrative whose sole purpose seems to be institutional wear and tear and the search for destabilization of the Argentine Football Association and its leadership, which has been at the head of the Institution for nine years.
The AFA reaffirms that there is a contractual and commercial link between two private entities – a foreign company and a civil association – that is fully valid, transparent and subject to the corresponding judicial controls, even for those who prefer to ignore them.
For all the above, the Argentine Football Association invites the media and those who carry out the task of informing, to review, in addition to the sources, the judicial rulings, remembering that the responsibility of reporting truthfully implies avoiding contributing to operations that respond to particular interests.
Society deserves to receive serious, responsible and proven information; operations, on the other hand, tend to become exposed on their own over time.
