According to Reuters and the football news website 'Goal.com', on July 22 local time, the Argentine Football Association (AFA) stated that the claims by its president Claudio Tapia and financial director Pablo Tovaggino being required to testify by a US court are 'completely unfounded'.
But AFA acknowledges that a third party could provide evidence regarding several individuals, including officials from that association, before being summoned before a U.S. grand jury.
Tapiya - AFP Photos
According to reports, previously, Argentine media reported that on the morning of the 20th, at Kennedy International Airport, Tapia and Toviño were detained by agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) before boarding a charter flight for the Argentine national team.
According to the Argentine news website Infobae, U.S. authorities are investigating a business contract worth over $300 million related to AFA. Following a raid during a money laundering investigation in December last year, the financial situation of Argentine football has come under broader scrutiny.
An eyewitness at the airport said that when the Argentine team was about to board the plane, federal agents questioned Tapia and Toviñez for about 30 minutes in a bus parked on the tarmac.
AFA has not disclosed the names of third-party individuals summoned by the US court, but stressed that the US authorities have not targeted Tapoliya or Toveigni.
In a statement, AFA said that the documents mentioned by several media sources were not related to subpoenas for Tapia or Toviño.
The statement indicates that the claims that Tapia or Tovigno were summoned to testify by the American judicial authorities are completely fabricated. The claims that their mobile phones or other electronic devices were seized are also false. “The document does not impose any personal restrictions on the chairman of AFA and the financial director, nor does it require either of them to appear in court, and there is no record of imposing any procedural obligations, nor of seizing or confiscating their personal property.”
