By Andrew Warshaw
March 13 – Just as his club were staging one of their greatest comebacks to take their customary place in the Champions League quarterfinals, Barcelona president Sandro Rosell (pictured) found himself at the centre of possible fraud charges in Brazil.
A Brazilian court was told on Tuesday that Rosell’s marketing company Ailanto had been contracted to promote a 2008 friendly fixture without a formal bidding process and that a false document was used to secure the deal. According to public prosecutors, Ailanto, which is owned by Rosell, received $4m to organise the match.
Rosell, one of European football’s most visible and charismatic figures who has a prominent role in the European Club Association, has been Barcelona’s president since July, 2010. His lawyer, Antenor Madruga, argued his client had already been cleared of claims that the rights for the match had been bought illegally.
“The charges that have been levelled are under two allegations,” Madruga was quoted as saying by Brazilian daily Folha de S.Paulo. “One about whether his company had the capacity to promote matches, the other whether he presented false documents to prove he was able to promote matches. The police investigation did not come to any conclusion, but the prosecutor went ahead anyway.”
Prosecutors allege the company was not properly accredited to promote the match. But Madruga argued that the “false” document in question was totally valid. “Sandro had the rights to the game and he used that to proceed,” Madruga said.
The three-year investigation has also involved Ricardo Teixeira, former head of the Brazilian Football Federation who stepped down recently from that role and the World Cup 2014 organizing committee following widespread allegations of financial irregularities and corruption.
No charges have been filed against Teixeira but unconfirmed reports alleged that Rosell deposited $2m into one of Teixeira’s daughter’s bank accounts in 2011. Rosell, a former executive of Nike, according to reports played a leading role in securing the company’s sponsorship deal with the Brazilian football federation.
The latest case heaps further off-the-field unwanted publicity on Barca which is currently facing allegations of breaching FIFA regulations on the transfers of young players from abroad, as widely reported by InsideWorldFootball.
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