By Samindra Kunti
July 23 – A September friendly between Brazil and Argentina in San Francisco has been cancelled as the fallout of the FIFA corruption scandal continues. Problems with Full Play have impeded the staging of the match.
For the Brazilian Football Confederation CBF it seemed business as usual, negotiating a deal to stage a prestigious friendly with South American rivals Argentina on American soil with Full Play, one of the companies indicted by US authorities for bribing former CBF president José Maria Marin in relation to the 2016 Copa America.
The game would have been part of the Superclassico das Americas, pitting Brazil and Argentina against each other to rekindle the local rivalry that was part and parcel of the continent’s game between 1914 and 1976 in the form of the Copa Roca.
Full Play was involved in organising the Superclassico das Americas game, but Hugo Jinkis and his son Mariano Jinkis, the owners of Full Play, are under house arrest in Argentina, pending extradition to the US. The US authorities have accused them of bribing former CBF president Marin and another unnamed senior CBF official in relation to the 2016 Copa America, to be hosted by the US, via a newly-founded company Datisa. The friendly has been called off.
“It’s public knowledge all the problems involving Full Play right now,” World Eleven CEO Guillermo Tofoni told the Associated Press. World Eleven deals with the logistics of the Argentina team.
“We are still trying to make sure the game happens between the two teams somewhere in the United States,” said Tofoni. “It just wouldn’t be called the Superclassico, because that belongs to Full Play.”
Brazilian-based company Klefer, also involved in the organisation of the matches, will not be affiliated with the friendly either. Earlier in spring Klefer had its assets frozen by the court in Rio de Janeiro. Local authorities have now forced Klefer to turn over its contracts with the CBF.
American fans will therefore not see a mouthwatering match-up between Lionel Messi and Neymar, colleagues at FC Barcelona, but both Brazil and Argentina already have friendlies planned in the United States in September with Argentina taking on Mexico in Dallas and Brazil playing the USA in Boston.
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