AFA boss “Chiqui” Tapia consolidates power with conmebol VP Seat

For decades, Humberto Grondona ruled the Argentine Football Association (AFA) with an iron fist, which allowed him to scale to the apex of global football, becoming FIFA’s treasurer and a senior vice president. Untarnished during his lifetime, the whole FIFA gate scandal blew the lid on an intricate system of bribes that had Grondona at the centre.

After a period of uncertainty, a new strongman seems to be consolidating his power at AFA, Claudio “Chiqui” Tapia The president of third division club Barracas Central, Tapia was elected president of AFA in mid-2017 and has quickly con- solidated power. On Friday, Tapia was elected vice-president of Conmebol, the South American football authority that depends on FIFA. Paraguay’s Alejandro Domínguez was reelected president. “Less than a year and a half ago, Argentine football had been forgotten in America and the world, but today it once again has a presence in Conmebol through a vice-presidency,” Chiqui wrote on Twitter.

Tapia started from t he bottom, taking a job as a street cleaner for Manliba, a company owned by the family of President Mauricio Macri. As a low-level union leader, Ta- pia met Paola, one of the five children of the powerful Hugo Moyano, leading to a marriage that saw him form part of the Moyano clan, the most powerful union leaders in Argentina. In parallel, Tapia rose through the youth divisions of Barracas Central, reaching the first team, before playing for Club Sportivo Dock Sud, also of the Argentine lower divisions. Chiqui, as he calls himself, was a striker. Tapia is a devout fan of Boca Juniors and the Argentine National team (La Selección). Through Boca Juniors President Daniel Angelici, he has a good relationship with President Macri, meaning he spans the political spectrum, from union leaders to the business and political elite.

This week, Tapia began the process of recovering the power that Argentine football had forged under Grondona, relinquished in 2016 when then-president Luis Segura resigned to AFA’s seat at the powerful FIFA Council, the highest-level decision-making body in global football. At the time, Argentina had been represented for 28 consecutive years, after Grondona made his way into the Council in 1988.