BUENOS AIRES — Seventy-five team directors had placed their votes in envelopes, and Argentine soccer was moments from electing its first new leader after 35 years under the rule of Julio Grondona, a strongman of Latin American soccer politics who died in 2014. But hope quickly turned to despair: The 75 votes somehow produced a 38-38 tie, a stunning rejection of basic mathematics.
The botched election for the presidency of the Argentine soccer federation this month was viewed by many Argentines as a national disgrace. But in its dysfunction, it offered a view into the perils faced by the new figures battling to control the region’s influential soccer organizations in the wake of a sweeping corruption scandal, and how difficult it will be to coax leaders whom fans can trust out of what many consider a tainted talent pool.