\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t The Argentine Football Association (AFA) on Wednesday rejected reports that its president, Claudio \u201cChiqui\u201d Tapia, had been summoned to testify by United States judicial authorities.<\/p>\n
The claims surfaced in several Argentine media outlets after Argentina\u2019s men\u2019s national team returned from the U.S. after playing in the final of the 2026 FIFA World Cup held in New Jersey.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The reports also alleged that the FBI had confiscated Tapia\u2019s cellphone, a claim the AFA likewise denied.<\/p>\n
According to Argentine footballs organizing body the document cited by several publications \u201cdoes not constitute a subpoena directed at AFA President Claudio Tapia or the organization\u2019s Treasurer, Pablo Toviggino,\u201d but is instead \u201cdirected at a third party.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe dissemination of inaccurate or deliberately distorted information leads to serious misinformation and unjustifiably damages the reputation and image of individuals and institutions,\u201d the AFA said.<\/p>\n
The association urged media outlets \u201cto thoroughly verify the content of documents before publishing claims that are not supported by them,\u201d adding that it reserved \u201cthe right to take all appropriate legal action in response to the dissemination of false or manifestly misleading information.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Argentine newspaper La Nacin, the document is linked to an investigation into multimillion-dollar transactions between the AFA and alleged shell companies stemming from a 2021 contract with TourProdEnter LLC.<\/p>\n
The company and its owners are also under investigation by the FBI.<\/p>\n
In December 2025, La Nacin reported that AFA had moved US$42 million of its income to the Florida-based company, which was incorporated in August 2021 and became AFAs exclusive commercial agent for foreign markets just four months later.<\/p>\n
Since then, it has handled more than US$260 million in AFA revenues.<\/p>\n
Tapias message to fans Tapia also published an open letter to Argentine fans on Instagram, referring to the lost final and the many accusations that have circulated against the Argentine squad.<\/p>\n
In it, he acknowledged that \u201cSpain was superior to Argentina\u201d in the World Cup final, adding that \u201cit hurts to lose\u201d because \u201cwe\u2019re used to fighting until the very end.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also urged supporters to \u201cthink about the sacrifice\u201d made by the players, coaching staff and \u201cevery person who worked for more than 50 days away from their families\u201d to \u201crepresent Argentina in the best way possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tapia called on fans not to \u201cget carried away by lies or by schemes that seek only to destabilize,\u201d but instead to \u201cthank, support and appreciate the players who once again gave their all for the team.\u201d<\/p>\n
His letter comes amid a wave of conspiracy theories promoted by several streamers and public figures following Argentina\u2019s defeat. The claims range from allegations that the World Cup final was fixed in Spain\u2019s favor to assertions that Argentina\u2019s players were pressured to lose in order to prevent Tapia from being detained by the FBI.<\/p>\n
Argentina has also faced accusations of widespread racism that circulated online during the 2026 FIFA World Cup.<\/p>\n
Black Argentines, anti-racism activists, and Black expatriates living in Argentina have pushed back against it, arguing that the country was cast as the tournaments villain in an increasingly polarized online debate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Argentine Football Association (AFA) on Wednesday rejected reports that its president, Claudio \u201cChiqui\u201d Tapia, had been summoned to testify by United States judicial authorities. The claims surfaced in several Argentine media outlets after Argentina\u2019s men\u2019s national team returned from the U.S. after playing in the final of the 2026 FIFA World Cup held in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":94633,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[253,4518,2885,66,67],"tags":[2459,5250,4493,1368,1369],"class_list":["post-94632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-argentina","category-argentine-football-association","category-claudio-chiqui-tapia","category-football","category-sports","tag-argentina","tag-argentine-football-association","tag-claudio-chiqui-tapia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94632","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=94632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}