September 15 – Ricardo Teixeira’s life ban from football has been upheld after the Court of Arbitration (CAS) dismissed his attempt to overturn it on appeal.
The highest court in sport had little difficulty in confirming its decision, saying it “comfortably concluded” the sanction for breaching Article 27 of the FIFA Ethics Code was proportionate.
In November 2019, the Brazilian was banned for life and fined CHF1 million after the FIFA’s Ethics Committee found him guilty of taking bribes for marketing and media rights for continental and Brazilian football competitions between 2006 and 2012.
CAS came to its decision given “the extraordinarily high amounts of the bribes at stake”, “Teixeira’s intentional behaviour” and “his responsibility to serve as a role model as a result of the very prominent and senior positions he held in association football both at national and international level.”
The Brazilian, the son-in-law of the late Joao Havelange, led the Confederation of Brazilian Football (CBF) for 14 years before resigning in 2012, two years before Brazil staged the World Cup.
Teixeira was also a high-profile member of the FIFA executive committee that voted to hand the hosting rights for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar.
He has been a target in the US justice department’s sweeping FIFAGate investigation that has seen dozens of football administrators and marketeers indicted, fined and jailed, but Teixeira has resisted extradition to the United States because the Brazilian constitution protects its citizens from being handed over to the American authorities.
The former CBF boss has always maintained his innocence.
In a 2017 interview with newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo, he said: “Is there a safer place than Brazil? Which? Why would I run if here I’m not accused of anything? Everything they accuse me of abroad is not a crime in Brazil. Not that I’m saying if I did it or not.”
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