Teixeira linked to new corruption scandal
Reuters - Wednesday 15 February 2012, 20:01
The president of the
Brazilian Football Confederation and the man charged with
organising the 2014 World Cup was reportedly close to resigning
on Wednesday after a local newspaper implicated him in another
corruption scandal.
Ricardo Teixeira, who has headed the CBF for 22 years, could
step down as early as Thursday, O Globo newspaper reported.
The news came on the day another newspaper, Folha de
S.Paulo, reported that a company linked to the football boss
overcharged the organisers of a November 2008 friendly match
between Brazil and Portugal in Brazil's capital, Brasilia.
Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka and Robinho were among the big names
who played in the game Brazil won 6-2 with a hat-trick from Luis
Fabiano.
Folha said the Ailanto Marketing firm charged almost twice
the normal room rate in booking accommodation for the Brazil
side and 40 members of the Portuguese delegation. The local
government of Brasilia spent 9 million reais ($5.23 million) on
the game, according to Folha.
It said Ailanto is the owner of another company called VSV
Agropecuaria Empreendimentos Ltda whose Rio de Janeiro business
address is the same as that of a firm belonging to Teixeira
Folha did not specify how Teixeira might have benefited from
the overcharging.
Telephone calls to the CBF went unanswered and the
prosecutor's office handling the case declined to comment.
The allegations are the latest in a long string of
accusations leveled against Teixeira, 64, who is also a member
of world football ruling body FIFA's ruling executive committee.
In 2001, a Congressional investigation accused him of 13
crimes ranging from tax evasion to money laundering to
misleading lawmakers, although no charges were ever brought.
Most recently, Teixeira was accused of taking more than $1
million in bribes from ISL, the marketing firm that worked
closely with FIFA in the 1990s.
Teixeira has denied any wrongdoing. Last year he told
Brazilian magazine Piaui that the accusations against him were
"all nonsense."
With preparations for the 2014 World Cup behind schedule and
over budget, the accusations have strained relations between
Teixeira and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, prompting him
to lower his public profile.
Teixeira remains the president of the Local World Cup
Organising Committee but has rarely appeared in public in recent
months.
Instead, he has turned much of the media work over to
former Real Madrid, Inter Milan and Barcelona striker Ronaldo,
whom he appointed to the committee's management board on December 1.