ZURICH/RIO DE JANEIRO: Disgraced Ricardo Teixeira, long-time dictator of Brazilian football, has finally placed himself beyond world football justice by agreeing a pension settlement with FIFA writes KEIR RADNEDGE.

Under a regulation revised in 2005, all departing members of the executive committee of the world federation benefit from a pension based on their years of service.

Teixeira, former son-in-law of ex-FIFA president Joao Havelange, was a member of the FIFA exco from 1989 until he fled Brazil for Miami in March 2012 after the weight of pressure of scandal. These included the ISL collapse after which it emerged – after years of media pursuit in the face of FIFA stalling – that Teixeira and Havelange had benefited to the tune of at least $21m from ‘commissions’ for facilitating World Cup TV rights deals.

The Brazilian football confederation, of which Teixeira was long-time president, has reportedly continued to pay him a monthly ‘consultancy fee’ and he was also due his FIFA pension.

However, acceptance of the pension would have meant Teixeira retaining a legal link with world football and being subject to its jurisdiction. This grew in significance among suggestions that he might be named, in one way or another, in investigator Michael Garcia’s report about the 2018-2022 World Cup bid scandal.

Teixeira is believed to have voted for Qatar to host the 2022 finals and to have persuaded fellow South American members of the FIFA exco to do the same.

Now Teixeira has agreed a settlement of pension rights with FIFA which provide him with a one-off payment and final severing of all formal ties.

Confirmation of the deal came from audit and compliance chairman Domenico Scala, as reported in Brazil, stating: “Ricardo Teixeira is in the past.”

Scala would not offer further details of the settlement. Teixeira could have expected around $20,000-a-year until the age of 82. He is currently 67.

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