|
Grondona was a larger than life figure who was
known as "the Godfather" and ruled Argentine football for more
than three decades.
He died in 2014 and the eight-part series, scheduled to stream
on Amazon's video service from Friday, has Grondona posthumously
recounting stories about football’s dirty deals.
"I find it super interesting to imagine Don Julio telling the
story from the other side," Armando Bo, the series' creator,
director and executive producer, told Reuters. "Because he tells
it in a relaxed way, having lived it and with nothing to lose."
"It’s one of these cases where the truth is stranger than
fiction so I was kind of forced to make it comedy, satire," said
Bo, who won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for "Birdman"
in 2015.
The Argentine-Chilean co-production is based around the
real-life rise and fall of Sergio Jadue, who shot to prominence
as the president of the Chilean football association in 2011.
Chile won the Copa America under his presidency but Jadue became
an informant in the corruption scandal surrounding the sport's
governing body FIFA and pleaded guilty to racketeering
conspiracy and wire fraud conspiracy.
He was banned for life by the FIFA ethics committee in 2015.
The series is shot in several cities in Latin America, Europe
and the United States and stars Karla Souza ("How to Get Away
with Murder"), Andres Parra ("Pablo Escobar: The Drug Lord”),
Paulina Gaitan ("Narcos"), and features Luis Margani as Grondona.
(Writing by Andrew Downie in London; Editing by Frances Kerry)
[© 2020 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2020 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
|
|
