Corruption in AFA: sponsor of the national team admitted diverting payments and demanded Chiqui Tapia's resignation

The Argentine Football Association is once again at the center of a controversy. Socios.com, main sponsor of the National Team since 2021 and one of the most important companies in the blockchain ecosystem applied to sports, decided to halt the transfer of funds to AFA after reporting serious irregularities in the path of the money corresponding to the sponsorship contract.

The company, headquartered in Malta and with commercial ties to clubs such as Barcelona, Juventus, Manchester City or PSG, stated that from the beginning of the relationship it disbursed more than 9 million dollars. However, according to its complaint, only a minimal portion went directly into the accounts of the governing body of Argentine football.

According to the company, only 480 thousand dollars were transferred directly to AFA in July 2021. The rest of the money, about 8.5 million dollars, was channeled through intermediary companies such as Q22 Services Limited (Guernsey), Stratega Consulting USA LLC (Delaware), Odeoma Gestión SL (Madrid) and Tourprodenter LLC (Florida). The company stated that none of these firms provided real services or took part in the negotiation of the contracts.

In that scenario, Socios.com was blunt: ""Given the seriousness of the events, we have decided that we can no longer continue sending funds to Tourprodenter LLC or to any other intermediary"", they communicated. From now on, any future payment will be made only directly to AFA.

The company led by Alexandre Dreyfus also demanded a formal accounting report in order to know how much money was withheld by those offshore structures. The claim is not new, since in 2022 they had requested the identification of the "final beneficiaries" of the companies involved, without obtaining a response from the entity headed by the mobster Claudio "Chiqui" Tapia.

Meanwhile, the letter also referred to the institutional level. Socios.com demanded that Tapia, treasurer Pablo Toviggino and other AFA executives take a "step aside" or submit their resignation. The central argument was the need to preserve the image of the National Team in the run-up to the 2026 World Cup and to prevent the AFA brand from being exposed to judicial investigations and raids.

Finally, Socios.com urged other major sponsors, including Adidas, American Express and Coca-Cola, to assess depositing pending payments into escrow accounts until it is guaranteed that the funds reach AFA directly. In addition, it made itself available to the judicial authorities of Argentina, the United States and Spain to provide transfer records, emails and messages that support its complaint.