By David Gold
September 13 – Legendary Brazilian forward Romário, now a Congressman in Brazil’s Parliament, has accused the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) and national team coach Mano Menezes of using international matches to promote players for their own benefit.
Romário made the claims after striker Hulk (pictured top, left) made a €50 million (£40 million/$64 million) move from FC Porto to Russian champions Zenit St Petersburg.
The move came soon after the player starred for Brazil at the London 2012 Olympic Games, helping them reach the final of the tournament.
Hulk has been recognised for some time as one of the world’s best forwards and was selected as one of the three overage players Menezes was allowed to include in his Olympic squad.
Only players under the age of 23 are allowed to be picked apart from three exceptions, and the likes of Alexandre Pato and Robinho were overlooked in favour of Hulk.
Romário wrote that there was a “cartel of summons” within the CBF after Hulk’s headline move this week, and he went on to pick up on two other significant moves for Brazilian players recently.
Defender Leandro Castán has recently moved from Copa Libertadores champions Corinthians to Serie A outfit AS Roma, while Romário (pictured below) believes goalkeeper Cássio is also being promoted ahead of a sale.
“Now the keeper of Corinthians, who has his economics connected with the Brazilian Football Confederation, will be sold after some games for the national team, if not already, to AS Roma,” he added.
“Brazilian people do not deserve this.
“[Sports] Minister Aldo Rebelo needs to help us to stop it.
“An institution such as the CBF, which is exempt from federal taxes, is already overdue an audit.”
This is not the first time Romário has attacked those running the game in Brazil.
He has been a fierce critic of the preparations for the FIFA World Cup the country hosts in 2014 and he campaigned publicly against former Brazilian football chief Ricardo Teixeira’s unusual accumulation of powers.
Teixeira (pictured below) was the head of Brazil 2014 and the CBF as well as being a FIFA Executive Committee member until earlier this year.
He ended his 23-year reign as head of the CBF, as well as his positions at FIFA and Brazil 2014 earlier this year, citing health reasons.
He had been increasingly ostracised during his final months in power, with FIFA and the Brazilian Government turning on him.
Since he quit, the long awaited court documents have finally been released which show that he and his former father in law, the ex-FIFA President João Havelange, accepted significant sums of money from world football’s governing body’s former marketing partner ISL.
Although José Maria Marin replaced Teixeira earlier this year, he is hardly seen as a reformer or a break from the past.
Romário was a part of the Brazil team that won the World Cup in 1994, five years after Teixeira became the head of the CBF.
The CBF has been accused in the past of promoting players for commercial reasons.
Famously, Ronaldo (pictured below) was selected to play in the World Cup final in 1998 despite suffering a fit in the hours before the game, with a Congressional inquiry held afterwards to establish whether there were commercial pressures from the national team sponsor Nike to field the player.
Brazil has also been accused of playing too many friendly games during the calendar year, with some claiming this is to promote players competing in the domestic league for potential big money moves overseas.
The national team played in a friendly in Sweden just days after the end of their Olympic campaign in London last month, and this week they have already played South Africa and China.
Brazil will also play Argentina in another friendly later this week.
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