Julio Grondona

Julio Humberto Grondona (18 September 1931 – 30 July 2014) was an Argentine football executive.[1] He served as president of the Argentine Football Association (Asociación del Fútbol Argentino) from 1979 until his death in 2014. He also served as Senior Vice-President of FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association).[2]

Julio Grondona
Grondona in 2009.
Born
Julio Humberto Grondona

(1931-09-18)18 September 1931
Avellaneda, Argentina
Died30 July 2014(2014-07-30) (aged 82)
Buenos Aires, Argentina
NationalityArgentine
Occupation(s)Chairman of AFA (1979–2014)
Vice-President of FIFA (1988–2014)

Biography

Arsenal Fútbol Club

Julio Grondona's career in football began in 1956, when he and his brother Héctor founded Arsenal Fútbol Club, inspired by the homonymous English side, in Sarandí, Avellaneda, Buenos Aires. The team's colours, light blue and red, were chosen because of two different reasons. The light blue represents the sky and the red stripe, is in honor to Julio's grandfather, who was a fan of River Plate.

Grondona was president of the club for nearly twenty years, from 1957 to 1976, when he was elected president of Club Atlético Independiente. Under his leadership the club was promoted from the lowest rank in the Argentine football league system, the Primera D, in 1962 and once again in 1964, when the team won the Primera C title.

Club Atlético Independiente

While holding the Arsenal de Sarandi presidency, he also held positions in neighboring club Independiente, where he was elected as chair of the professional football subcommittee in 1962. While he was in that role, the team won the 1963 Argentine Primera División, the Copa Libertadores in 1964 and 1965 and the Campeonato Nacional in 1967.

In 1970 his Lista Roja lost the club's elections, and he left the club until his return as president in 1976, when he defeated the ruling José Epelbóim in the elections. Under Grondona, Independiente won the 1977 Campeonato Nacional in Córdoba against locals Talleres with eight players on the pitch, and the 1978 Campeonato Nacional, beating River Plate in the final.

Argentine Football Association
Grondona in 2007.

In 1979 Grondona was elected to succeed Huracán's David Bracuto as head of the Argentine Football Association, immediately after Argentina's 1978 FIFA World Cup win.

During his tenure Argentina reached three World Cup finals (all of them against Germany, winning in 1986 and losing in 1990 and 2014), three Olympic finals (obtaining the silver medal in Atlanta 1996 and gold in Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008) and won six FIFA U-20 World Cups (1979, 1995, 1997, 2001, 2005 and 2007).

Death

Grondona died of an aortic aneurysm at the age of 82 on 30 July 2014 at Buenos Aires, Argentina[3][4]

Controversy

Grondona caused controversy in 2003 when, in response to a journalist's question about referee standards in Argentina, he said: "I do not believe a Jew can ever be a referee at this level. It's hard work and you know, Jews don't like hard work."[5] In another incident, he went on record saying "Jews don't like it when it gets rough."[6]

On 31 May 2011, in an interview with German press, when asked about who he voted for to receive the 2018 and 2030 World Cup hosting rights Grondona said, "Yes, I voted for Argentina, because a vote for the US would be like a vote for England, and that is not possible [...] But with the English bid I said: Let us be brief. If you give back the Islas Malvinas (Falkland Islands), which belong to us, you will get my vote. They then became sad and left."[7] Grondona later apologized for his attack on England.[8]

In 2014 his son, Humberto, a FIFA official, admitted illegally selling tickets for games at the World Cup in Brazil.[9]

On 2 June 2015, FIFA blamed[10][11] Julio Grondona for approving, in 2007, corrupt payments at the centre of the United States Department of Justice investigation known as FIFA-gate that led to the 47-count indictment against football officials and sports marketing executives.[12]

Luis Margani portrayed Grondona in the 2020 Amazon Prime Video original series El Presidente.

See also

References
  1. Alconada Mon, Hugo (2015). La piñata : el ABC de la corrupción, de la burguesía nacional kirchnerista ... y del "capitalismo de amigos". C.A.B.A. p. 211. ISBN 978-950-49-4785-1.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  2. Biography of Julio Grondona at FIFA.com Archived 2014-05-14 at the Wayback Machine
  3. "Murió Julio Grondona" at CanchaLlena.com
  4. "Argentine FA chief Grondona dies" at SBS.com
  5. "Julio Grondona, en frases" at Clarín, 30 Jul 2014
  6. "Jose Pekerman, former Maccabi player, seeks World Cup glory" on The Times of Israel
  7. "Grondona niega vender su voto en FIFA" at ESPN.com
  8. "Fifa's Julio Grondona apologises for 'unacceptable' attack on England". The Guardian.
  9. "Son of Fifa vice-president Julio Grondona caught up in ticket scandal". Guardian. Retrieved 5 July 2014.
  10. "FIFA blames Julio Grondona for authorizing USD 10M payments to support African diaspora in Caribbean countries". FIFA. Archived from the original on 3 June 2015. Retrieved 2 June 2015.
  11. "Fifa have said that a man who died last year is behind the $10m 'bribe', not Jerome Valcke". The Independent. 2015-06-02. Retrieved 2017-06-16.
  12. "South Africa minister says Fifa payment of $10m was not World Cup bribe". the Guardian. 3 June 2015.
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