There Is No Logic at All in Accusing Me of Corruption, Says Former CBF President

08/03/2015 - 09h37

Ricardo Teixeira, 68, the former president of the CBF, admits he is being investigated by the FBI, the federal police of the United States, within the international FIFA scandal.

He denies, however, to be a beneficiary of the bribe payment scheme. Seven top football authorities have been arrested in Switzerland since May. José Maria Marin, his successor at the CBF, is one of them.

The US Department of Justice is investigating payments made by the sports multinational Nike to the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) in 1996.

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What do you think of the FBI investigation on high-ranking FIFA officials?
I won´t talk about it, friend.

In the investigation, the FBI reports that there is a co-conspirator who was CBF president, with posts in FIFA and Conmebol. Only you and Marco Polo Del Nero [current president of the CBF] fit that description.
If it is about the Nike contract, the one who signed this contract was me. So there´s no point in sugarcoating it. There´s no logic at all. The whole process happened after June, the proof is that the Copa America in Argentina was held beautifully. The problem arose after the Copa America in Argentina in 2011. [According to the investigation from the United States Department of Justice, the main top authorities of Conmebol (the South American Football Confederation) divided bribes of US$ 20 million to sell the marketing rights of each edition of the Copa America from 2015 edition on].

What do you think of Joseph Blatter [FIFA president]?
I don´t want to talk about it. I'm out of FIFA. I haven´t been involved with football for three years.

Do you regret having left the CBF?
No, no way. I was going to die. How could I be there if my two kidneys weren´t working?

Brazilian football is not in a good moment, right? Eliminated by Paraguay in the Copa America...
I have no opinion about it. I'm worried about my Flamengo. God willing, it´s going to pass through the national championship unscathed.

Translated by DENISE MOTA

Read the article in the original language

	Sergio Lima/Folhapress
	Ricardo Teixeira, the former president of the CBF