\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t Argentine Football Association (AFA) president Claudio \u201cChiqui\u201d Tapia appeared in front of the court on Thursday after he was summoned for questioning on the Customs Collection and Control Agency (ARCA, in Spanish) complaint against AFA.<\/p>\n
According to ARCA, the AFA failed to deposit tax withholdings and social security contributions for more than AR$19,350 trillion (just over US$13 billion).<\/p>\n
\u201cWe complied with what the judge ordered, with what we were summoned for,\u201d said Tapia after exiting the court. The AFA boss did not take questions from the press and quickly rushed out of the area.<\/p>\n
Tapia arrived at the courthouse shortly before 11 a.m., accompanied by his lawyers and security guards. He was there for just under an hour and a half, during which, according to Argentine outlet TN, he did not agree to take questions from the judge \u2014 which he\u2019s entitled to do under Argentine law \u2014 and instead filed a document containing his statement.<\/p>\n
Tapia wasn\u2019t the only AFA top brass to be summoned this week. AFA treasurer and Tapia right-hand man Pablo Toviggino was in the courthouse on Wednesday, as were before him current AFA general secretary Cristian Malaspina and his predecessor V\u00edctor Blanco.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want the Finalissima at River\u201d Tapia\u2019s most fiery statement had nothing to do with the case, as he insisted he\u2019ll work to have the 2026 Finalissima played in Argentina.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are going to get to work now, because Spain wants the Finalissima to be played in Spain, and I want it to be played at [River Plate\u2019s stadium] the Monumental,\u201d he told the press shortly before leaving the courthouse.<\/p>\n
The tournament has been at the center of debates after the conflict in the Middle East recently escalated. The tournament, scheduled to take place on March 27 at the Lusail Stadium in Qatar, faces serious doubts about its feasibility there.<\/p>\n
The Qatar Football Association announced on March 1 the postponement of all tournaments, competitions, and matches \u2014 along with all other sporting activities in the country \u2014 but has since resumed activities.<\/p>\n
The tournament, sometimes called the CONMEBOL\u2013UEFA Cup of Champions, sees the South American and European continental champions face off in a single match.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The 2026 matchup has generated great anticipation, as 2024 Copa Am\u00e9rica winners Argentina and 2024 European Championship champion Spain are among the biggest candidates to win this year\u2019s World Cup.<\/p>\n
It was initially expected to be played between June and July 2025, but it was postponed several times as both teams already had competitions scheduled.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Argentine Football Association (AFA) president Claudio \u201cChiqui\u201d Tapia appeared in front of the court on Thursday after he was summoned for questioning on the Customs Collection and Control Agency (ARCA, in Spanish) complaint against AFA. According to ARCA, the AFA failed to deposit tax withholdings and social security contributions for more than AR$19,350 trillion (just […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":41654,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2890,5788,2885,67],"tags":[4351,10214,4493,1369],"class_list":["post-41653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afa","category-arca","category-claudio-chiqui-tapia","category-sports","tag-afa","tag-arca","tag-claudio-chiqui-tapia","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41653\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}