KEIR RADNEDGE in RIO DE JANEIRO: Controversial Jose Maria Marin will not seek re-election next year as president of the Brazilian football confederation.
The veteran politician and administrator was parachuted in as head of the CBF in March of last year to succeed Ricardo Teixeira who had fled to Miami under the weight of scandal.
Teixeira, a former son-in-law of long-time ex-FIFA president Joao Havelange, was one of the world federation power brokers who accepted millions of dollars in illicit payments from ISL.
Marin, from Sao Paulo, had been senior vice-president at the CBF and stepped up as interim president of both the CBF and 2014 World Cup local organising committee.
His 16 months in charge have been tainted by reports about his role as a willing administrator under the military dictatorships in the 1970s.
Marin has come under steady attack from the media. Originally he considered moving ‘his’ CBF re-election forward to early next year to ‘clear the decks’ ahead of the World Cup.
His past has continued to haunt him however.
Cup review
He was pressed again over his political activities in the 1970s at a press conference summoned to review the Confederations Cup.
Marin said: “It seems that a lie repeated a thousand times can become a truth. Something that happened in 1975 is nothing to do with anything now.
“I have been deputy president and president of the CBF for many years and it was only because I became the chairman that people brought up these facts which had nothing to do with it.
“I am a peaceful man who is all for dialogue and I want to let you know that I do not regret one single act in my life because I have not done anything against anyone at all.”
Later, pressed further, he added: “I am committing now that I will not be a candidate for the CBF presidency again. All we want is to make all Brazilian fans very happy in 2014.
“I have no other wish regarding politics or the CBF.”
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