Nicolás Leoz

Life and work

The story behind the role.

Football administrator (1928–2019).

Nicolás Leoz Almirón (10 September 1928 – 28 August 2019) was President of CONMEBOL (South American Football Confederation) from 1986 to 2013. Leoz assumed the presidency in 1986 (succeeding Teófilo Salinas Fuller) and in February 2006, he was reelected as President for a sixth term. He was Paraguayan and received Colombian citizenship in 2008. On 23 April 2013, Leoz resigned from both the FIFA Executive Committee and the CONMEBOL presidency, citing health issues. Before his position as President of CONMEBOL, Leoz was President of the Justice Department of the Paraguayan Basketball Confederation (1957–1959), President of Paraguayan soccer Club Libertad (1969–1970 and 1974–1977), President of the Asociación Paraguaya de Fútbol (1971–1973 and 1979–1985) and Vice President of CONMEBOL (1972–1974 and 1980–1986). In November 2010 he was alleged by the BBC to have taken bribes in the 1990s regarding the awarding of World Cup television rights. In May 2015, Leoz was banned by the FIFA Ethics Committee for accepting bribes, money laundering, wire fraud and racketeering.

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