By Paul Nicholson
June 16 – Disgraced former Brazilian FA president and FIFA vice-president Ricardo Teixeira, being pursued in Brazil for money laundering and tax evasion, has been linked to payments from Qatar which have been found in a bank account in his name.
The payments are for €30 million and were found in a Monaco account that was opened two years after Qatar who the rights to host the 2022 World Cup.
The payments did not come from the Qatar 2022 bid team but appear to be from construction company that would have benefited from a Qatar win. Teixeira says the money in the account was from Brazil.
The details of the account were sent to Brazilian police after a judge in Monaco accessed his account and forwarded the findings.
Teixeira’s name has also come up in conjunction with the investigation into the friendly matches of the Brazilian national team that were sponsored by Nike with the commercial rights represented by Kentaro, whose offices have been raided by Swiss police.
Teixeira denied his vote had been bought. “I voted for Qatar, but I did not receive a penny for this,” he said.
Teixeira was president of the CBF and one of the most powerful men in world football until March 2012, when he resigned from his football positions citing ill health. He had at one point been the leader of Brazil’s 2014 World Cup organising committee.
The Brazilian has been followed by questions of his financial dealings wherever he has gone. In 2001, the Brazilian Congress investigated Teixeira on suspicion of 13 crimes, including tax evasion, money laundering and misleading lawmakers, but no charges were brought.
He was also implicated in the ISL scandals and in 2010, the Swiss Justice found that Teixeira had received millions of euros that were deposited into accounts in Andorra.
Teixeira was a close friend of former Barcelona president Sandro Rosell. Rosell’s marketing company, Ailanto, received $4 million to organise a Brazilian national team friendly in 2008, according to Brazilian public prosecutors last year.
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