When the head of Argentina’s national soccer federation, Claudio Tapia, announced plans in 2022 to build a sports complex in North Bay Village, he described it as a global example of a partnership between a local government and a sporting entity.
But now, with the FBI investgating whether Tapia personally benefited from potentially illicit money flowing through the Argentine soccer federation’s business affiliates in South Florida, some residents of the small island community off Miami Beach are raising questions about the finances behind the sports complex — now worth around $24 million — that opened right before the start of the 2026 World Cup.
In interviews with the Miami Herald as well as discussions on public forums like Facebook, they claim that the project’s implementation was not transparent and that contrary to how it was initially publicized, access to the grounds has become restricted…