CONMEBOL Treasurer Carlos Chavez said that CONMEBOL "might try to annul its contract with Datisa if the sports marketing company cannot meet its obligations" for the current Copa América and the next three editions of the tournament, according to Gideon Long of REUTERS. U.S. investigators "have frozen the firm's bank accounts as part of a probe into alleged corruption in football." Chavez said that ending the contract "might not be easy because Datisa has already sold some of the marketing and broadcasting rights to third parties such as Coca-Cola, America Movil's mobile phone company Claro and Mexican television company Televisa." Chavez: "These are delicate issues and our lawyers are working out what happens next." CONMEBOL "has sold the marketing and broadcasting rights for this Copa America and the next three editions, in 2016, 2019 and 2023, to Datisa, an Argentine-owned marketing company." The contract is worth around $320M, or $80M per tournament. Datisa had been due to pay CONMEBOL the first $80M by the end of next week, "but because of the freezing of its accounts" it has only paid around $25M. That "left the federation scrambling for cash on the eve of this year's tournament and it had to dip into a contingency fund to come up with prize money." Chavez said that "there was no danger that next year's Copa" -- an expanded centenary edition to be played in the U.S. -- would be canceled (
REUTERS, 6/27).
PARAGUAY REVOKES IMMUNITY: Paraguay President Horacio Cartes "signed a law repealing the immunity" that the HQ of South America's football confederation enjoyed for nearly two decades. Thursday's action "is part of the fallout from a U.S. investigation into an alleged bribery scheme in FIFA." Former FIFA ExCo member Nicolas Leoz "lobbied Paraguay's legislators for the 1997 law making the headquarters exempt from legal intervention." The immunity "included protection from the kind of raids that happened in May at FIFA and CONCACAF headquarters in Switzerland and Miami" (AP, 6/25).
