Federico Beligoy bought a luxurious 380 m² apartment seven days before the Soccer World Cup

One week before traveling to the last World Cup, the national director of Refereeing for the Argentine Football Association (AFA), Federico Beligoy, purchased a brand-new 380-square-meter apartment in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Devoto. According to a report from the Real Estate Registry of the City of Buenos Aires accessed by LA NACION, the head of the referees declared having paid US$490,000 for the property, well below market values. The purchase of the property included two additional spaces in the building's basement. Together, they add another 43 square meters. Everything indicates that these would be a single parking space (12 m2) and a double parking space (31 m2). Beligoy shares ownership of the three properties in equal halves with Andrea Rosa Cordero, married to him in first nuptials, as reflected in the documents obtained by LA NACION. Ownership report from the Real Estate Registry of the City of Buenos AiresCollageThe building where Beligoy lives, at 4400 Pedro Morán, is promoted by an architecture and real estate development firm whose documentation this newspaper also analyzed. "Year of completion: 2024," its listing states. The building features parking spaces and apartments with up to five rooms. The Real Estate Registry report on Beligoy's property says "Floor: 4 and 5. 380.28 m2 - Percentage 11.89%." In reality, the building has no fifth floor. On the fourth floor there are two apartments with their respective terraces. One has 245.1 total square meters and the other, 398.1 square meters. The area of the latter approximates the figure declared by the head of the referees at the Real Estate Registry (380.28 square meters). The architecture firm's description clarifies that "the measurements, areas, m2 and proportions stated are approximate" in the floor plans displayed on its website. There it detailed that the 398.1-square-meter apartment, the largest in the building, is laid out as follows: 199 square meters of interior space and 28.5 square meters of exterior space (a balcony). To these are added the terrace with an uncovered area of 120 square meters and a "possible covered area" of 50 square meters. The Pedro Morán street building in Devoto that Federico Beligoy, the head of the referees, purchasedLA NACIONIt is a five-room apartment with all the amenities. Inside there is a living-dining room, a kitchen with a separate laundry area, four bedrooms and three bathrooms. And on the terrace, according to the floor plans published on the development's website, there is a grill, an area where a barbecue pavilion (quincho) can be built, and one more bathroom. "4th Floor with Quincho/Terraces for private use," read a sign from the firm promoting the building. Beligoy declared that he paid US$490,000 for that apartment. If the 380.28 square meters were taken into account, the price per square meter would be US$1,289.47. Considering only the covered square meters from the description made by the architecture firm (199 m2), the calculation would yield US$2,462.31 per meter. And if half of the uncovered square meters (99 m2) plus the 199 interior m2 are taken, he would have paid US$1,644 per square meter. The numbers don't add up. Claudio Tapia and Federico BeligoyChiqui Tapia; BeligoyIn fact, the same architecture firm promotes a "brand-new" apartment in Villa Devoto, with 148 covered square meters and 57 exterior m2, for US$710,000. That value equals just over US$4,000 per square meter. Two other sources from the real estate sector told LA NACION that the sale price in that area can range between US$2,800 and US$5,000 per m2. In both cases, it should be noted, these are listing prices and not closed transactions, so they constitute market references and not an appraisal of the property purchased by Beligoy. Meanwhile, a report from the Institute of Statistics and Census of the City of Buenos Aires (IdeCBA), an agency under the city government, found that the average listing price per square meter of three-room apartments for sale in Villa Devoto was US$2,447 for used units and US$3,276 for brand-new ones. This is only a reference because Beligoy's property has more than three rooms. The Devoto real estate transaction came after another real estate transaction by Beligoy that ended very differently. In 2024, he disbursed US$261,490 to buy two apartments that the real estate firm Abes was building in La Plata. The project fell through, and Beligoy has reportedly not sued for the return of the money he had invested, according to what LA NACION reconstructed in recent weeks from an internal accounting record prepared by the developer's accountants and court documents. That transaction had a peculiarity: Abes's previous contracts had been signed by subordinates of the company; however, in Beligoy's case, one of the partners and legal representatives of the real estate firm, Diego Lacki, was involved. "Beligoy asked for that so no one would see him," Lacki explained when questioned in court, according to a source who heard his statement. Beligoy did not respond to the messages LA NACION sent him in recent days to ask him about both investments. Scarce assetsBeligoy's real estate acquisitions contrast with his recent past, when he had a modest house in Santos Lugares. Working class, the boss of Argentine refereeing lived in a one-story house, to which he later added a second floor, LA NACION reconstructed. In recent years, however, he made real estate investments worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, while consolidating his position within the AFA's leadership structure and strengthening his ties with its president, Claudio "Chiqui" Tapia. Beligoy has long faced strong criticism. The president of Banfield, Matías Mariotto, was the first to attack him. Then, the president of Lanús, Nicolás Russo, said his tenure was "over." He was followed by Daniel Vila, head of Independiente Rivadavia of Mendoza, who called him a "bandit," while the former president of River Plate, Jorge Brito (Jr.), demanded his departure. "If the AFA and Tapia care about building a transparent football, I think the first thing they should do is get rid of this guy," he said these days. In addition to his leadership role in refereeing, Beligoy also has business activity linked to two companies. Both include among their corporate purposes activities related to the commercialization and manufacture of athletic footwear, according to a database with banking and corporate information. One of the two companies is called Base Cinco SA. In April 2023, Beligoy appeared as a shareholder. In its corporate purpose, the company says it is dedicated to the purchase and sale and/or import of products and raw materials for the sole injection process for footwear, as well as the manufacture, purchase, sale, import and export of athletic footwear and fashion footwear. In parallel, in the Official Bulletin of the province of Santa Fe, Beligoy appears in Beshoes. This firm, in addition to including the commercialization, import and export of footwear and sports apparel, adds advertising time and space marketing services, as included in the database used by banks that contains corporate information. With the collaboration of Ricardo Brom. By Nicolás Pizzi and Hugo Alconada Mon, Ignacio Grimaldi