Argentina Football Association president Luis Segura referred yesterday for the first time to the stunning wiretap revelations released involving former chief Don Julio Grondona, admitting that the recordings left his organization in an uncomfortable situation.
Among other misdeeds, in the tapes played by television show La Cornisa on Sunday evening Grondona was heard boasting about paying off a referee for a 2013 Libertadores Cup match, and claimed to have undue influence in the designation of officials.
These are not happy times in the AFA”, Segura admitted to Radio América. “This hits hard and it was not in anyone’s plans to go through this type of situation. But these are problems of the past, not current ones.”
The ex-Argentinos Juniors boss did move to defend one of the people implicated in the wiretaps, Lanús’ Alejandro Marón. “The chat was nothing terrible. He is asking for the results of a drug test to be available quicker to abide by the rules,” he said, referring to one conversation where Marón appears to ask Grondona for advance notice of a doping examination for one of his players.
Segura added that “this will be the hardest year of the post-Grondona era. Everything that has happened lately is bad.”
Gnecco to leave Conmebol
While the AFA president is yet to officially confirm his decision, Argentina’s representative to the Conmebol governing body’s Committee of Referees looks certain to lose his job over the scandal. Abel Gnecco was taped in a conversation with Grondona where the former head admitted putting Paraguayan referee Carlos Amarillo into a Boca Juniors game to ensure the Xeneize beat Corinthians.
According to the NA agency Segura was furious at the apparent connivance between his predecessor and Gnecco in designating referees for key South American games. The official is likely to be removed from his position at the end of the Copa America tournament.
Source: Buenos Aires Herald