June 22 – Former FIFA and Brazilian powerbroker Ricardo Teixeira has spoken openly for the first time about his role in the 2018 and 2022 bid process, describing claims that he took bribes as “nonsense.”
Teixeira, who acknowledges he voted for Qatar’s controversial 2022 hosting bid, denied he was paid to do so. “I received nothing, absolutely nothing for that. This business about Qatar is complete nonsense,” he told Brazilian news site Terra.
Blatter himself has admitted there was a certain amount of horse-trading involved and Teixeira confirmed he voted for Qatar for 2022 as part of a deal to get votes for Portugal and Spain’s joint candidacy for the 2018 tournament. The joint Iberian bid, traditional allies of CONMEBOL, ultimately lost out to Russia.
Teixeira, a former FIFA vice-president, claims he struck a perfectly legal vote-swapping deal with the Qataris, Spanish federation president Angel Maria Villar and then Argentine federation president Julio Grondona, who died last year.
“Spain needed votes,” he said “They had the three from South America, their own and maybe one more from Europe. But it wasn’t enough. So we had a meeting. Me, Villar and Grondona got some votes from Asia thanks to Qatar. And what was the deal? Qatar would vote for us for 2018 and would, in exchange, receive our support for 2022.”
Teixeira’s successor as boss of the Brazilian FA, Jose Maria Marin, was one of the seven senior football officials arrested in Zurich last month as part of the US probe into money-laundering and racketeering at the heart of FIFA.
Teixeira, who was a son-in-law of long-time FIFA president Joao Havelange, is not among the 14 people indicted in the US probe, but Brazilian prosecutors announced earlier this month they are investigating him for crimes including money-laundering and fraud. Now 67, he stepped down in 2012 on grounds of ill health amid allegations of receiving millions of dollars unlawfully during his Brazilian FA presidency.
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