July 27 – In an ongoing public war of words Rogerio Caboclo has said his predecessor Marco Polo Del Nero could end up in prison. Caboclo (pictured), the current CBF president, is suspended over allegations of sexual harassment.
In 2018, FIFA banned Del Nero following accusations of corruption and his indictment by the US Department of Justice – the former CBF president hasn’t left Brazil since FIFAGate in 2015 out of fear of being detained abroad. But Caboclo has claimed in a stinging response to a statement made by Del Nero that he might end up behind bars after all.
“With all due respect to his age and the traumas arising from his inactivity due to compulsory ‘retirement’, I completely refute the content of his lying letter, starting with the fanciful environment in which he mentions a supposed ‘tragedy’,” wrote Caboclo in a new statement.
“Among the various attacks and falsehoods he launched against me, it is clear that he insists on not facing the central fact: having been the author, in his own hand, of the absurd and indecorous R$ 12.409 million proposal that he presented to me to indemnify an employee whose gross salary was around R$15,000 per month. In exchange for her not revealing a discrediting audio, clandestinely recorded, for reasons that only Del Nero himself can explain.”
In his statement, Caboclo, who repeated that he remains convinced of his innocence, went to great lengths to portray Del Nero as an unsavory character with criminal tendencies.
“It is important to highlight that Marco Polo Del Nero, who has moved in criminal areas, albeit in an inexpressive way for many years, never asked for forgiveness for his nefarious acts at the CBF.”
“Finally, if Marco Polo indicates some type of treatment for me, it is because he is referring to something supposedly remediable, different from his incorrigible deviations in character and personality which, after ongoing investigations, could lead him directly to jail.”
In the less than edifying spectacle in the corridors of powers of the Brazilian game, the pair have been slinging mud ever since Caboclo, who was suspended on the eve of the Copa America over allegations of sexual harassment, claimed that the former CBF president blackmailed him over clandestine recordings, which led Del Nero to ask whether Caboclo was “a monster, a liar or just a pervert?”
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