Emilio Maurer, former director of the national football team, is not surprised by the investigation by the United States Department of Justice into Emilio Azcárraga Jean, owner of Grupo Televisa, for alleged bribes to obtain the rights to broadcast World Cups, as he recalled that in it FIFAgate No tricolor was apprehended, despite the closeness of the Mexican Football Federation (FMF) with the International Association Football Federation (FIFA).
At that time they arrested the directors of Concacaf (Confederation of North American, Central American and Caribbean Football) and Conmebol (South American Confederation), but they never touched Mexico. That was a little strange
said Maurer, former president of the FMF, who in the 90s confronted Televisa for control of the national team.
Grupo Televisa has managed Mexican soccer for many years. If it comes out now, it would obviously affect this sport in the country
he noted in an interview with The Day.
He FIFAgate In 2015, it led to the dismantling of the power leadership of world football, chaired at that time by the Swiss Joseph Blatter, after the US authorities arrested at least nine managers suspected of acts of corruption in choosing the venues for the World Cup in Russia. 2018 and Qatar 2022.
The outbreak of the mega-scandal coincided with a change in the presidency of the FMF after the departure of Justino Compeán and the arrival of Decio de María. At that time, it seemed that tricolor football had no relationship with the international controversy. However, two years later, the Argentine Alejandro Burzaco, former executive director of the company Torneos y Competencias, was the first to point out that the Televisa group and the Brazilian Globo TV paid 15 million dollars in bribes to Julio Grondona, leader of the Argentine Football Association and vice president of FIFA, to acquire the television rights for the 2018, 2022, 2026 and 2030 World Cups.
The accusations caused American shareholders of Televisa to sue it in a federal court in New York for diverting millions of dollars to pay alleged bribes
. In 2023, the company resolved the litigation by reaching an agreement in which it had to pay $95 million. “We don’t know if there were Mexicans involved (in the FIFAgate), but I doubt they didn’t know about it.”
Azcárraga, along with Carlos Martínez, former president of Fox Latin America, are so far the names of the Mexicans involved in corruption cases with FIFA.
Martínez was accused of being involved in a bribery case to obtain the broadcast rights to the Copa Libertadores in 2012, the most important club tournament in South America. However, he was acquitted last year by a federal jury in Brooklyn, New York.
So far, no director of the FMF of Liga Mx has expressed a position regarding the investigation into Televisa.
The Colombian journalist Fernando Araújo Vélez, author of the book It wasn’t football, it was fraud, said to The Day that despite any investigation, it will be difficult to clean football of these controversies.
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