Several fans of Argentine soccer club San Lorenzo de Almagro have participated in protests against the club’s leadership, following allegations of bribery.
On April 21, TV channel Telenueve Denuncia published footage which appeared to show the club’s president, Marcelo Moretti, accepting tens of thousands of dollars from a mother trying to guarantee her son a spot on one of the club’s junior teams. The footage was allegedly taken approximately a year ago.
An audio, which was filmed by a yet-unidentified individual, seems to reveal the player’s mother telling Moretti, “The guys told me, or I don’t know who, something about 25,000 dollars,” which the club’s president confirmed.
While Moretti begins to acknowledge that the circumstances are “shocking,” the mother interrupts him, saying, “No it’s not shocking to me,” adding, “It’s not my business.”
The mother offers to give him the first $10,000 of the $25,000, however Moretti appears to request that the full sum be paid up front. To this, the mother responds: “I’ll give you the $25,000, but sign the boy.”
In video footage, the mother can be seen handing over a thick wad of money to Moretti, telling him, “Twenty, if you want to count it.” Moretti pockets the money in his inner suit jacket, telling the mother that he doesn’t need to count it.
In a clip taken after her initial interaction with Moretti, the woman declares, “I found it all funny. He grabbed the money and put it inside his suit! Did you see the desperation?”
Another recording also appears to reveal her intention to pay Moretti the remaining $5,000, as she says, “I am going to screw them over with those 5,000 dollars…I am going to be seeing Moretti regularly.”
She continues, “I am going to tell him: ‘Here you go, this is what I owe you.’ Can you imagine how he’s going to stuff it into his suit again?”
The mother in the footage is believed to be María José Scottini, a media entrepreneur who was also an official under Pablo Bruera, the former mayor of La Plata, the capital of the Buenos Aires province.
Scottini has maintained that the sum of money was a donation, telling TyC Sports: “When my son came to play for San Lorenzo, I saw the condition of the pitches and locker rooms. People who are big San Lorenzo fans got together and made a donation.”
She added: “I have proof that it was a donation. I have the receipt. I don’t know what they used it [the donation] for.”
Scottini says she has suspicions about who recorded the interactions, which she reportedly intends to clarify in court, adding, “I’m going to court for my son’s good name and honor. He is very sad.”
She says her son, who she has identified as Simón, no longer plays soccer and is now studying medicine.
The government has fired an official, Francisco Carlos Sánchez Gamino, who appeared to greet and speak to Scottini in the footage.
Moretti, who also claims that the money was a donation, has since taken a leave of absence. On April 23, he declared on X: “Early today, my lawyer and I filed a self-reported complaint through the Buenos Aires City Attorney General’s Office’s complaint-receiving system, seeking an investigation into the crude scheme intended to smear me.”
That same day, further footage of Moretti was published by Telenueve Denuncia which appeared to show Moretti confirming that the club had paid for 30 members of “la barra brava”—or soccer “hooligans”—to travel to a match in the Ecuadorian city of Quito. Though the details of the match are not specified in the footage, San Lorenzo’s last match in Quito took place in April 2024.
For a number of fans, it is not enough for Moretti to take a leave of absence. Many are demanding that he step down.
On the evening of April 23, supporters of the club gathered in Boedo, the Buenos Aires neighborhood where the club’s stadium is based, to protest. Many were demanding the reopening of the club’s presidential elections, with some chanting: “Leaders, leaders, we won’t say it again. If you don’t call for an election, there’s going to be chaos.”
The controversy comes at a difficult time for the club, with long-time fan of the club Pope Francis dying on the same day the initial videos surfaced.
On April 26, the team took to the pitch for the first time since his death. Players wore jerseys with images of the late Pope and the slogan “Together for Eternity”. Meanwhile, many fans had organized their own homages, including Vatican-colored yellow-and-white flags and a life-size statue of the Pope, according to Reuters. Fans could also be heard chanting: “The Pope is from Boedo.”
Luca Sosa, a fan of San Lorenzo and the sports journalist behind the @sanlorenzounico Instagram account, told Latin America Reports that the past week has been “hell” for the club.
He said that it made him “very sad” that, instead of being focused on paying tributes to the Pope and “paying homage to him in every way,” fans now find themselves “demanding the resignation of the president.” He added, “I am very sad that all of this happened at once.”
He said that it is a “very complicated” moment for the club. While acknowledging that San Lorenzo had previously suffered “scandal after scandal, both on and off the pitch,” he explained that the current situation “exceeds all kinds of limits.” He described it as “horrible” to see the club “on the covers of all the newspapers, both here in Argentina and internationally” because of the controversy surrounding the president.
Looking forward, Sosa said the club needs people who “agree with each other” and who “have the guts” to “immerse themselves in the club and take the club forward,” though he envisages San Lorenzo’s future to be “very complex.”
The club’s next presidential elections are due to take place in December 2027, and Sosa is not convinced that initiating earlier elections would solve the issue. He stated that it would be “difficult” for the club to find any alternatives to its current governance.
While Sosa acknowledged that he “does not like to speak on behalf of San Lorenzo fans” as a whole, he observed: “The unanimous cry is for the president to resign.”
Sosa added, “I don’t see him resigning unless he’s almost forced to or if he doesn’t resign of his own free will, if he is removed.”
Now, Sora believes “the future of the club is at stake,” with questions being asked about “how it will continue, in what form it will continue, and with whom.” He hopes that the challenges San Lorenzo is currently facing “can be minimized and [that] a solution can be found.”
In an interview with Latin America Reports, another fan, Gustavo Dilorenzo, said he “was not in the least bit surprised” by the leaked footage.
“It made us feel very ashamed. All of us who feel a deep connection to San Lorenzo are very ashamed to have to experience these situations,” Dilorenzo said.
“I think what the fans feel is anger, not surprise.”
He also claimed that Moretti, who in 2023 won the club’s presidential elections with 36.73% of the 16,358 votes cast, was elected mostly by people “who aren’t involved in the day-to-day life of San Lorenzo”.
Now, the fan believes that supporters of San Lorenzo must “stay united and committed to the club, in order to take it forwards, even though lately we haven’t had good luck, or have made poor choices in elections.”
He explained that it is time for “the best people to come together and start planning for a club that matches the potential of San Lorenzo,” as the club “has many goals to fulfill.”
Dilorenzo concluded: “I believe the only way to bring San Lorenzo back to the forefront is through unity, leaving dirty politics behind, and working together, allowing the best people to finally lead San Lorenzo’s future.”
Featured image credit:
Image: San Lorenzo fans in 2008
Photographer: joãokẽdal via Flickr
Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/31819174@N07/2979979090/
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
