By Andrew Warshaw
October 22- Ricardo Teixeira, until last year one of the most powerful men in world football, appears to have lost his bid to be granted residency in the tiny tax haven of Andorra.
The landlocked micro-state in the Pyrennees, bordered by Spain and France, does not have an extradition treaty with Brazil, effectively putting the corruption-scarred Teixeira, a former Fifa executive committee member, out of the reach of any potential Brazilian court summons.
According to the Andorran authorities Teixeira has not lived for the required minimum 90 days in the principality even though he owns a home there. Teixeira’s current one-year residency permit expires on November 14 and the interior ministry has said he will not be allowed to extent it.
The ruling comes amid fresh reports in Brazil linking the one-time head of Brazilian football with financial mismanagement. The reports suggest the Andorran government feared giving residency to a person who is being investigated back home.
In March, 2012, the former World Cup organising committee chief announced his retuirement from all his football posts citing ill-health. He initially went to Miami but secured a residency in Andorra allegedly arranged for him by a company controlled by Barcelona president Sandro Rosell and Joan Besoli, a business middle man.
Teixeira’s next whereabouts are bound to be heavily scrutinised by the media given his tainted history in the powerful corridors of world football.
Ever since 2000, he has been investigated for various alleged crimes, including tax evasion and money laundering, but no charges were ever brought in Brazil.
He was heavily implicated, however, in the infamous ISL scandal and in 2010, Swiss justice found that he had received millions of euros that were apparently deposited into accounts in Andorra. The Swiss prosecutor’s report revealed that, during his tenure on Fifa’s exco, he and his former father-in-law, ex-Fifa President Joao Havelange, took more than $41m in bribes in connection with the award of World Cup marketing rights