2014 World Cup committee president to quit amid scandal

February 16, 2012 - 19:59 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - Ricardo Teixeira, president of the organizing committee of the 2014 World Cup to be held in Brazil, will step down from that position within hours amid corruption allegations, Brazilian media reported Thursday, February 16.

Teixeira, 64, the ex son-in-law of former FIFA boss Joao Havelange, is also expected to resign as head of the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF), which he has led for 23 years.

He was on medical leave since December. Reports doubted only whether Teixeira will resign from both positions or extend his medical leave instead.

On Thursday, he was expected to travel to Miami, where he would rejoin his wife and daughter.

Last year, Teixeira appointed retired striker Ronaldo, the all-time World Cup top scorer, as co-president of the 2014 World Cup organizing committee. In recent weeks, he has sacked several close aides.

British reporter Andrew Jennings has pointed an accusing finger at Teixeira and Havelange over the bribery scandal around the sports marketing firm ISL in the 1990s.

Last year, FIFA president Joseph Blatter promised to release to the public the documents of the Swiss investigation of the case, which reportedly implicates both. However, he has not made the documents public yet.

Teixeira's position became even more difficult after the Brazilian daily Folha de Sao Paulo reported that he is the object of an investigation by Brazilian police.

He is suspected with having financial dealings with a firm that allegedly committed irregularities when it organized a friendly between Brazil and Portugal in late 2008 in Brasilia.

The firm, Ailanto Marketing, is owned by Barcelona president Sandro Rosell, who is according to Brazilian media reports a very close friend of Teixeira's.

FIFA did not immediately comment on the rumours of Teixeira's exit. Until last year, the Brazilian was regarded as a strong candidate to succeed Blatter at the helm of FIFA in 2015.

World Cup preparations are running conspicuously late, and FIFA is worried that matters may be made worse by a power vacuum, the daily said, M&C reported citing DPA.