The Milei administration is facing another setback in its conflict with the Argentine Football Association (AFA) after the judiciary declared the ARCA tax authority’s attempt to change clubs’ tax code “inadmissible.”

Clubs currently operate under a special tax regimen. They are taxed 7.5% on ticket sales, TV rights, and player sales. A new regime announced in July raised the rate to 18.6%. AFA filed an injunction to halt the changes, which was granted in August, and the levy went back down to its previous rate. 

ARCA filed a complaint against the injunction, aiming to restore its power to change the tax code — but the Federal Administrative Litigation Court rejected the complaint, meaning the injunction will stand for the foreseeable future.

A long-standing dispute

The fight over taxing Argentine football is one of the most recent chapters in the Milei administration’s fight with the AFA. The dispute, which originated over club models and privatization, has spilled over to the social, political, and economic spheres.

In October 2024, the government issued a decree stating that the current tax regime would expire in six months and creating an 11-person committee tasked with discussing a new “efficient, sufficient, and sustainable” system.

According to the government, the existing system failed to cover demands. They claimed clubs had racked up AR$7 billion in debt (US$7.2 million at the official rate, US$6 million at the MEP rate) between November 2023 and April 2024.

In July 2025, the government announced a tax reform which raised the rate from 7.5% to 13.06% and added a temporary additional charge of 5.56% for one year, totaling 18.62% of the gross amount collected by the clubs. 

The AFA protested the change, claiming the government had withdrawn from negotiations after telling them to present a “deficit-free project.” The organization said the government was “only interested in asphyxiating non-profit civil association clubs to allow private sports corporations, to allow the entry of ‘hot money’ to do business with our clubs and the players developed in our academies.”