RIO DE JANEIRO: Police inquiries in Brazil have unearthed evidence of payments from a Qatari construction companies into a bank account of former FIFA executive committee member Ricardo Teixeira.

Simultaneously Swiss police have raided the offices of a company in Zurich in a wider investigation into allegations regarding a friendly match between Brazil and Argentina in Qatar in 2010.

The match was financed by a Qatari construction firm with close links to the emir.

The payments did not come from the official Qatar 2022 bid but have raised questions about whether the companies were attempting to influence voters.

Teixeira’s name appears in both investigations. A judge in Monaco has accessed his bank account in the principality and passed its details to Brazilian police who were already investigating him for money laundering and tax evasion.

Brazilian prosecution sources have said the account included money from Qatari companies hoping to benefit from World Cup building contracts. A Brazilian indictment against Teixeira revealed the account contained €30m.

Teixeira denied his vote had been influenced, insisting his Monaco account was set up two years after Qatar won the right to host the World Cup and contained only funds that had come from Brazil.

He added: “I voted for Qatar but I did not receive a penny for this.”

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