{"id":41598,"date":"2026-02-24T12:04:27","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T12:04:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=41598"},"modified":"2026-02-24T12:04:27","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T12:04:27","slug":"argentina-football-league-suspends-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=41598","title":{"rendered":"Argentina football league suspends games"},"content":{"rendered":"
Argentina’s domestic football league on Monday suspended its ninth matchday in solidarity with Argentine Football Association (AFA) chief Claudio Tapia, who was given permission to leave the country by a court despite an ongoing tax fraud investigation.<\/p>\n

The court’s ruling was published Monday, five days after Tapia was barred from leaving the country over the probe.<\/p>\n

“The mere existence of a criminal investigation does not in itself constitute sufficient grounds to prevent the applicant from traveling,” the ruling states.<\/p>\n

Tax authorities are investigating whether the AFA illegally retained retirement contributions from players and employees and failed to pay taxes amounting to approximately 19 billion pesos (approximately $13.8 million) between March 2024 and September 2025.<\/p>\n

Tapia had requested permission to travel to attend a Colombian Football Federation event in Barranquilla, followed by a South American football federation (Conmebol) board meeting in Rio de Janeiro.<\/p>\n

The court imposed bail of five million pesos (approximately $3,500) to allow him to leave the country.<\/p>\n

Tapia has been summoned to appear in court on March 5, along with the AFA treasurer and three other officials.<\/p>\n

The ninth round of Argentina’s Apertura tournament was suspended on Monday at the request of football clubs, in solidarity with the Argentine Football Association (AFA), the league said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Club leaders called for a “work stoppage” between March 5 and March 8, the Liga Profesional de Futbol said in a statement on X.<\/p>\n

The AFA is also under investigation for alleged money laundering, which led to a search of its premises in December, along with several first division clubs such as Racing, Independiente, and San Lorenzo.<\/p>\n

The AFA says it is the victim of a “smear campaign” amid a dispute with a businessman over the organization of Argentina friendly internationals.<\/p>\n

The AFA says the right-wing government of President Javier Milei is involved.<\/p>\n

Milei favors turning football clubs, which are non-profit associations, into publicly traded sports companies.<\/p>\n

AFA rules do not allow this.<\/p>\n

The dispute coincides with a series of general strikes against Milei’s contentious labor reforms.<\/p>\n

Following the announcement of the football league’s strike, pro-government lawmaker Silvana Giudici told local media that “there is no political persecution” in the case, and that the complaints made by the government were “appropriate.”<\/p>\n

“I hope the clubs realize this and do not become hostages to these guys,” she said, referring to Tapia and AFA Treasurer Pablo Toviggino.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Argentina’s domestic football league on Monday suspended its ninth matchday in solidarity with Argentine Football Association (AFA) chief Claudio Tapia, who was given permission to leave the country by a court despite an ongoing tax fraud investigation. The court’s ruling was published Monday, five days after Tapia was barred from leaving the country over the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41598\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}