????本周三，多位國際足聯的官員和體育傳播公司的高管遭到指控。很明顯這條爆炸性新聞漏掉了一個人的名字。

????不是現任國際足聯主席約瑟夫?布拉特，而是已故的前國際足聯副主席胡利奧?格隆多納。

????格隆多納長期擔任阿根廷足聯（AFA）主席，還兼任國際足聯的第一副主席，地位僅次于布拉特，一直到2014年7月以82歲高齡過世。格隆多納從1988年起一直出任國際足聯執行委員會的委員，曾任該組織財務委員會的主席，是布拉特多年的心腹。

????格隆多納在位時直接掌控足球賽事的電視轉播權，這也是本周國際足聯官員被指控的核心問題。阿根廷體育記者赫南?卡斯蒂略這樣評價格隆多納：“他是漏網的大人物，因為他在世時掌控著國際足聯所有的電視轉播合約。”卡斯蒂略曾寫過一本未經格隆多納本人授權的傳記《一切都會過去》，書中描寫了格隆多納生平與足壇、政界以及商界的糾葛。

????格隆多納在阿根廷政壇是個狠角色，人稱“唐?胡利奧”。1979年，當時執政軍人集團的海軍中將卡洛斯?拉科斯特任命他為阿根廷足聯主席。該軍事集團統治阿根廷的“骯臟戰爭”（1976-1983年）期間，國內失蹤或喪生的民眾多達3萬人。戰后格隆多納也是最后一個經歷過那段歲月的當權派。

????格隆多納被公認為阿根廷政壇動蕩的幸存者，無論是軍人政府，還是左右派民選政府治下，他都能從容應對。他以鐵腕作風牢牢控制阿根廷足聯的財政和電視轉播合約。本周三足聯貪腐案的被告之中，有三人都和格隆多納過從甚密。他們被指控的罪名是“為爭奪利潤豐厚的國際足球賽事傳播與推廣權，有組織地行賄及受賄，涉及賄賂和回扣金額超過1.5億美元。”

????三位被告是兩家阿根廷體育傳播公司的高管：Torneos y Competencias的首席執行官亞歷杭德羅?布爾薩科，擁有阿根廷國內許多聯賽和全國大賽的轉播權；以及Full Play Group的首席執行官胡戈?詹金斯和馬里亞諾維奇?詹金斯兄弟，該公司掌握多家南美國家隊比賽和錦標賽的轉播權。

????“不論跟哪個商人做生意，最后所有的電視轉播業務都得由格隆多納經手。”卡斯蒂略說。

????格隆多納與布爾薩科起初的合作并不順利。2009年，阿根廷政府收回了Torneos y Competencias對阿根廷聯賽的地方收費電視轉播權，交由格隆多納管理。阿根廷足聯推出了政府補貼的免費電視轉播節目，名為Fútbol Para Todos（意為“大眾足球”）。

????但格隆多納和布爾薩科很快結為合作伙伴，布爾薩科的公司Torneos y Competencias向“大眾足球”提供節目制作服務，并掌握了賽事的國際轉播權。今年年初，Torneos y Competencias還獲得了阿根廷國家隊友誼賽的制作權。

????格隆多納的葬禮明星閃耀，國際足聯主席布拉特、阿根廷總統克里斯蒂娜?費爾南德斯?德基什內爾和阿根廷足球明星利昂納爾?梅西均有出席。現任國際足聯副主席兼執行委員，前任南美足聯主席歐亨尼奧?菲格雷多也出席了葬禮，本周三他也遭到指控。

????或許有玩笑的意思吧，委內瑞拉電視網TeleSUR在簡單描述格隆多納遺體告別場景時，配上了美國經典黑幫影片《教父》里一處葬禮畫面。

????格隆多納生前成功避開了圍繞身邊的腐敗指控，但在決定俄羅斯和卡塔爾成為2018年與2022年世界杯主辦國的過程中，他很可能覺察到了麻煩。格隆多納之子溫貝托目前執教阿根廷青年隊，球隊正在新西蘭參加20歲以下的青年世界杯。本周三溫貝托評論指控時表示：“我沒覺得意外。當年我和父親聊過，我們都知道在競選世界杯主辦城市的時候，出現了一些違規行為。”

????倘若格隆多納仍在世，會怎樣應對國際足聯的丑聞？現在已經無從知曉。不過大家都知道他小指上戴著一枚尾戒，上面刻著西班牙語todopasa，意思是：一切都會過去。（財富中文網）

????譯者：Pessy

????審校：夏林

????In Wednesday’s blockbuster indictment of FIFA officials and sports marketing executives, there was one name glaringly unmentioned.

????No, it was not Sepp Blatter. It was Julio Grondona.

????As the longtime head of Argentina’s soccer federation, the AFA, Grondona served as FIFA’s senior vice president—Blatter’s No. 2– until his death in July 2014 at the age of 82. A member of FIFA’s executive committee from 1988 to his death and a former chair of the organization’s finance committee, Grondona was a long-time confidant of Blatter.

????He also exerted direct control over the television rights at the center of Wednesday’s indictments. “He’s the great missing man because, basically, he was the one who managed all the television contracts at FIFA while he was alive,” said Hernán Castillo, an Argentine sports journalist and the author of Todo Pasa, an unauthorized biography of Grondona’s life at the nexus of soccer, business, and politics.

????Known as “Don Julio,” Grondona cut a fearsome figure in the Argentine political landscape. Appointed to head the AFA in 1979 by Vice Admiral Carlos Lacoste, one of the leaders of the military junta that ruled Argentina during the Dirty War (1976 to 1983) that left up to 30,000 people disappeared or dead, he was the last major figure from that period still in power.

????Grondona was known as a survivor, someone who could get along with military rulers as well as civilian governments of both the right and the left. He also controlled the Argentine league’s finances and TV contracts with an iron fist. That put him in close contact with three of those indicted on Wednesday for allegedly having “systematically paid and agreed to pay well over $150 million in bribes and kickbacks to obtain lucrative media and marketing rights to international soccer tournaments.”

????Those three were Alejandro Burzaco, the head of Torneos y Competencias, an Argentine sports marketing business that had the rights to many Argentine league and national team games; and Hugo and Mariano Jinkis, who ran Full Play Group, an Argentine sports marketing business that holds the TV rights for several South American national teams and tournaments.

????“All TV business with whatever businessperson passed through Grondona’s hands,” said Castillo.

????Grondona’s relationship with Burzaco had a rocky start. In 2009, the Argentine government took the local pay-TV rights for the Argentine league away from Torneos y Competencias and gave them to Grondona and the AFA to start a government-subsidized free TV broadcast scheme called Fútbol Para Todos (Soccer for Everyone).

????But soon the two built a working relationship, and Burzaco’s company provided production services to Fútbol Para Todos and held the international rights for the games. As of the beginning of this year, the company also held the production rights to friendly games for the Argentine national team.

????Grondona’s funeral services were attended by Sepp Blatter, Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, and Argentine soccer star Lionel Messi. Also present was Eugenio Figueredo, a current FIFA vice president and executive committee member and former CONMEBOL president, who was indicted on Wednesday.

????Presumably in jest, the Venezuela-based television network TeleSUR briefly illustrated a story about Grondona’s sendoff with a funeral scene image from The Godfather.

????Grondona managed to avoid lasting corruption indictments during his lifetime, but he may very well have known that something untoward was going on in the selection of Russia and Qatar as hosts of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. Commenting from New Zealand on Wednesday, where he is coaching Argentina’s under-20 soccer World Cup, Grondona’s son, Humberto, said of the indictments, “I’m not surprised. From what I spoke about at the time with my father, we knew of certain irregularities that had happened with the elections in the cities for the World Cup.”

????It’s impossible to know how Grondona would have reacted to Wednesday’s news. He was known to wear a pinkie ring with the words “todopasa” inscribed. The translation: “everything passes.”