Though El Presidente invents the AMR, Episode 2 directly references the exposed in the 2015 FBI investigation. Real figures like Nicolás Leoz (Paraguay) and Eugenio Figueredo (Uruguay) operated exactly this way — buying votes with suitcases of cash hidden in FIFA’s own headquarters. The episode’s genius is showing not the grand conspiracy, but the small, ugly human transactions: a handshake in a parking garage, a nod across a restaurant, a text message that says “The match is green.”
The episode’s centerpiece is the lead-up to the 2010 CONMEBOL (South American Football Confederation) presidential election. The AMR has chosen a candidate — a corrupt, old-guard administrator. Their opposition? A reformist who wants clean books. el presidente s01e02 amr