AUF excluded from VAT distribution for sports betting
A representation argument cost the Uruguayan Football Association half of a fund it had been collecting for years. The Interior Football Organization (OFI) presented to Parliament that it represents 41.4 percent of those federated in the country, while the AUF reaches 4.2 percent. With this data, the Chamber of Deputies rewrote the bill, leaving the association out of the distribution and assigning the largest portion to OFI. The new scheme starts in January 2027.
Until now, the money was split equally between the two football entities, with a single permitted use: sports infrastructure for youth divisions. The table approved by Parliament has four categories: 45 percent for OFI, 25 percent for the Uruguayan Olympic Committee, another 25 percent for the National Sports Secretariat, and the remaining 5 percent for the Uruguay Sports Foundation.
Each beneficiary receives the money with a specific label. OFI and the Olympic Committee must channel it through separate administrative trusts and can only allocate it to infrastructure works for youth divisions. The National Sports Secretariat will use it to support recognized sports federations and organizations, including adapted sports, and the Uruguay Sports Foundation is limited to funding sports scholarships.
The origin of the formula was in the Executive Branch and was different. The proposal that reached Parliament distributed it in equal quarters among AUF, OFI, the Olympic Committee, and the National Sports Secretariat, so the association would have gone from 50 to 25 percent. It was OFI's objection that pushed that limit down to zero.
The AUF chose not to fight it. It did not appear in Parliament nor did it speak publicly about the matter, and sources within the association itself explain the decision by the need to keep channels open with the government, because there are two major issues on the table right now. One is the permit for the Copa Libertadores 2026 final, scheduled for November 28 at the Estadio Centenario, to carry sports betting advertising. The other is the progress of renovation works at the same stadium, estimated at US$200m, with the 2030 World Cup as the horizon.
It is worth clarifying what is being distributed because the headline might suggest something larger than it is. The table does not affect the total revenue generated by gambling in Uruguay nor does it modify the conditions under which bookmakers operate. What is being distributed is half of the increase in VAT revenue from sports predictions measured against the 2014 baseline, meaning a variable portion that depends on how much that tax grows and can fluctuate year by year. For the AUF, the underlying calculation is different: it exchanged a share in a variable flow for negotiation leverage on two fixed and much larger issues, and public silence is part of that exchange.
Tags: Uruguay, AUF, OFI, Betting VAT