By Ben Nicholson
October 20 – CONMEBOL has cut its links with Argentine sports marketing company Datisa, ending agreements that gave sponsorship and broadcast rights to Datisa for the Copa America tournaments, and in particular the Copa America Centenario scheduled to take place in the US next year, the first time the world’s oldest football tournament had been played outside the South American continent.
Datisa is a central player in the marketing scandal that has brought the South and North America football federations and their confederations to their knees.
Datisa was principally set up to handle broadcast rights for the Copa America. The main partners in the company were father and son Mariano and Hugo Jinkis (also owners of the Full Play agency), and Torneos y Competencias CEO Alejandro Burzaco.
All three are central figures in the US Department of Justice indictments and accused of various counts of offering and paying bribes to secure marketing rights, and money laundering. Burzaco is currently held in New York and believed to be co-operating with prosecutors, while the Jinkis’s are currently on bail in Buenos Aires waiting for a ruling on whether they will be extradited to the US.
Datisa had guaranteed $320 million for rights to the 2016, 2019 and 2023 editions of the tournament but all of that has been mutually annulled by CONMEBOL and the company.
Ever since the tsunami that the US Justice Department launched on football in the America’s, the 100th anniversary of the tournament slated for play in the US has been in doubt – not least because all the marketing partners and federation principals were suddenly wither under arrest or fugitives.
The indictments of those involved in the creation of the tournament, Jeffrey Webb, Eugenio Figueredo, José Maria Marin and Nicolas Leoz, stifled U.S. enthusiasm to host.
Datisa’s accounts were frozen in June by the U.S. Justice Department as part of their investigation into corruption. Due to the restriction on the accounts, Datisa had to dip into their contingency fund to make good on their first payment of $80 million to CONMEBOL.
Datisa’s executives allegedly agreed to pay $110 million in bribes to soccer officials, being all of the above-mentioned persons, of which $40 million is alleged to have been paid to date.
The U.S. demand that marketing partners were removed was potentially an onerous one given that some sponsorship and media rights had already been sold, to Coca-Cola, Mexican TV broadcaster Televisa, and mobile phone company Claro to name three.
However, CONMEBOL’s announcement that the commercial rights agreement has been rescinded suggests this sticky patch has been successfully navigated. What is uncertain is exactly how this was achieved.
In June, CONMEBOL treasurer Carlos Chavez stated: “We can’t annul a contract if Datisa has re-sold that contract, or those rights, to legitimate companies,” yet it appears that precisely this impossibility has been made possible.
CONMEBOL’s statement reads:
“The South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) and Datisa S.A. (Datisa) inform that the agreement for commercial rights relative to the Copa America Centenario will be rescinded with immediate effect.”
“CONMEBOL and Datisa have agreed to rescind all the commercial rights in possession of Datisa for the sale of sponsorship and rebroadcast rights associated with the Copa America Centenario.
“CONMEBOL will assume the aforementioned commercial rights while, together with CONCACAF and U.S. Soccer federation, they are going to identify new partners to commercialize and sell the commercial rights for the tournament using a new and transparent process.”
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