Romario demands legal action against Teixeira and Marin over World Cup cash
BRASILIA: Former Brazilian football supremo Ricardo Teixeira and successor Jose Maria Marin cashed up more than £2.5m for leading the local organisation of the 2014 World Cup writes KEIR RADNEDGE.
The estimate was contained a report from Romario, ex-World Cup star turned senator, from his parliamentary inquiry into the running of the Brazilian football confederation (CBF).
Romario has recommended that Brazilian prosecutors take legal action against both men.
Teixeira and Marin and current CBF president Marco Polo del Nero have all been indicted by the United States Deportment of Justice in the FIFAGate scandal; Marin is under house arrest in New York but Teixeira and Del Nero remain free becauses the constitiution bars the extradition of Brazilian citizens from the country.
Romario’s report also points up business relationship between Del Nero and former President Lula da Silva who is among Workers’ Party politicians facing domestic corruption charges. Lula’s successor, Dilma Rousseff, was removed from the presidency earlier this year through impeachment.
The inquiry into the CBF, relying on World Cup documents, discovered that in 2009 Teixeira was paid £300,000 by the organising committee of which he was then president (while simultaneously heading up the CBF).
Miami escape
Teixeira, effectively, paid himself a further £300,000 the following year (2010) but then an increased £730,000 in 2011. That was his last full year in charge of both organisations before he fled to Miami the next year under pressure of domestic corruption allegations (which he has always denied).
Marin took over both positions from 2013 and paid himself £375,000. In World Cup year Marin rewarded himself with £850,000.
Indictment statements from the US DoJ in the case of Brazilian marketing mogul Jose Hawilla have revealed that Teixeira was also benefiting from alleged bribes over the award of domestic TV football rights.
Further, over the same period, the presidency of the CBF also rewarded Teixeira with similarly payments. Teixeira ‘shared’ the benefits from Marin and Del Nero – a crucial reason for ensuring that they were his successors in control of Brazilian football.
Romario, referring only to the domestic cashflow issues, said: “The organising committee spent, in paying its ceo alone, more than 11m reals (£2.6m) in five years.
“In 2011, Ricardo Terra Teixeira received more than double the remuneration received in the previous year. We would also highlight the difference in total remuneration received by the same manager in consecutive years as a variable bonus.
“Considering that the purpose of the COL was the hosting of FIFA World Cup in three years’ time, it is difficult to see how the payments can be justified as ‘performance bonuses’.”
In May 2015 Marin was among the ‘Zurich Seven’ detained in Switzerland on the eve of FIFA Congress and subsequently extradited to the US.
Del Nero, staying at a separate hotel, immediately flew home to Brazil beyond the reach of the DoJ. He has remained there ever since, refusing to lead Brazilian football delegations at matches abroad but holding on to his position as president of the CBF.
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