Racism is not resolved with a handshake, sneers Brazil's Teixeira

By David Gold

November 26 – Brazil’s controversial football chief Ricardo Teixeira (pictured) has launched a veiled attack on Sepp Blatter by declaring that “racism is not resolved with a handshake”, echoing the words the embattled FIFA President used in an interview last week, as the country launched an anti-racism drive.

Blatter came in for fierce criticism from the British press last week for suggesting that racism could be resolved with a handshake after matches, though there was little outrage across the rest of the football world.

With just two rounds of matches left in Brazil’s league championship, the Brasileiro, the country’s Football Confederation (CBF) declared this week’s penultimate round of action as the “round against racism”.

“The message the body wants to give…is of protest against the intolerance many players suffer on the pitches of various countries and which ought to be vehemently condemned by the whole football universe,” the CBF said in a statement.

Teixeira said: “Racism is not resolved with a handshake and none of those who suffer it forget it the next day.

“It cannot be justified in the heat of a match nor interpreted as the gesture of a fan.

“It’s something intolerable that doesn’t mix with sport.

“People who don’t understand football is for everyone and not just for one race should be banned definitively from sport.”

Teixeira’s remarks were echoed by Brazil coach Mano Menezes.

“It’s very easy for a person to shake another’s hand after a match to say sorry for an insult towards what [the other] holds most sacred and significant,” he said.

“The solution is to find in existing laws a means to give out a very strong punishment.”

Back home, Teixeira is currently in a desperate battle to cling on to his post as a fraud investigation is looking into allegations he was involved in embezzling money.

The 2014 World Cup Organising Committee chief has also taken criticism for the slow pace of the country’s preparations to host football’s biggest competition in three years’ time.

Not wanting to alienate his political base in the country by excluding cities or regions from hosting games at the World Cup, he delayed and passed that decision onto FIFA, putting back preparations.

He has also created some influential enemies for himself at home, including footballing legend Pelé, who Teixeira did not invite to the World Cup qualifying groups draw earlier this year in Rio de Janeiro.

Pelé, considered by many as the greatest player of all time, and certainly the best in Brazilian history, made an appearance when President Dilma Rousseff, who is also a key Teixeira enemy, invited him.

Teixeira, also a member of FIFA’s Executive Committee, could have the pressure cranked up next month as Blatter has pledged to release documents relating to the collapse of the organisation’s former marketing partner ISL.

When announcing the move, Blatter also indicated that members of the executive committee could be forced to stand down, which is possibly a reference to Teixeira, whom he accused of not acting in the spirit of fair play when the Brazilian suggested he would make life tough for English journalists at the World Cup in 2014.

It is alleged that four key FIFA figures accepted payments from ISL, including Teixeira, and if that is the case and they are made public his 22 year reign at the head of Brazilian football could come to an end.

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