A former world football figure, Ricardo Teixeira, former president of the Brazilian Football Federation (CBF), was in turn suspended for life for his involvement in the huge corruption scandal of "FIFAgate".
Even if the son-in-law of the former president of the International Football Federation (FIFA), the late Joao Havelange, has never been sentenced by the American justice system, unlike his successor, José Maria Marin, he will no longer be able to take up any activity in football, at national and international level, decided the ethics commission. The internal justice of FIFA which also imposed a fine of one million Swiss francs, or 907 000 euros.
An all-powerful Brazilian football boss from 1989 to 2012, this 72-year-old lawyer was suspended for life for being bribed in exchange for contracts awarded to companies for media rights and marketing competitions. CBF, the Confederation of South American Football (Conmebol) and the Confederation of North America, Central America and the Caribbean (Concacaf), between 2006 and 2012, according to the FIFA press release.
Two men already judged
As part of this vast baptized scandal "FiFAgate", only two former South American football officials appeared in the US in 2018 during a lawsuit that exposed millions of dollars in bribes paid by sports marketing companies to Latin American football officials, in exchange for television broadcasting rights and the promotion of continental tournaments, including the Copa America and Copa Libertadores.
Juan Angel Napout, former boss of the Paraguayan Federation and former president of the Conmebol, was sentenced to nine years in prison, the heaviest sentence handed down by American justice against a South American football baron in FiFAgate ".
The former president of the Brazilian Confederation, José Maria Marin, was sentenced to four years in prison. Unlike José Maria Marin, arrested in Zurich in 2015, Mr. Teixeira was not tried in the United States because he was never extradited.
Marco Polo Del Nero, Mr. Marin's successor, has also been suspended for life for his involvement in this vast scandal.
37 million euros of bribe
Long before "FIFAgate", Ricardo Teixeira, an ally of former FIFA President Sepp Blatter, still suspended, who had won the organization of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, was also one of the main beneficiaries of the ISL (International Sport and Leisure) case.
Holding exclusive rights to the World Cup, ISL went bankrupt in 2001. According to court documents published in 2012, it appears that this company had paid bribes to Mr Blatter's predecessor, Joao Havelange.
According to the same documents, Havelange and her son-in-law Teixeira received more than 40 million Swiss francs, or 37 million euros in bribes from ISL between 1992 and 2000. These sums were presented as commissions . At the time, however, private commissions were not considered as corruption in Switzerland.
