World football’s governing body, FIFA has banned a former Brazil football chief for life for taking bribes to award contracts to companies for the media and marketing rights to CBF, Conmebol and Concacaf competitions.
Ricardo Teixeira, 72, a former FIFA executive committee and standing committee member who resigned in 2012, was also fined one million Swiss francs (907,000 euros) after he was found guilty of bribery in violation of the Fifa code of ethics.
FIFA said in a statement that its investigation into Teixeira focused on “bribery schemes” carried out between 2006 and 2012 “
“The investigation into Mr. Teixeira referred to bribery schemes, conducted during the 2006-2012 period, in relation to his role in awarding contracts to companies for the media and marketing rights to CBF, Conmebol and Concacaf competitions,” a Fifa statement said.
“In its decision, the adjudicatory chamber found that Mr. Teixeira had breached article 27 (Bribery) of the Fifa Code of Ethics (2018 edition) and, as a result, sanctioned him with a ban for life on taking part in any football-related activity (administrative, sports or any other) at both national and international level.”
Teixeira, a lawyer by profession, is also wanted by US authorities for his part in the major corruption scandal in 2015 that implicated the then head of FIFA Sepp Blatter and other top officials in world football.
His successor Jose Maria Marin was later arrested in Zurich during the scandal and extradited to the United States, where he was sentenced to four years in prison by the American courts. But Teixeira and another former CBF chief Marco Polo Del Nero have remained in Brazil and escaped extradition.
“Is there a safer place than Brazil? Which? Why would I run if here I’m not accused of anything? Everything they accuse me of abroad is not a crime in Brazil. Not that I’m saying if I did it or not,” he told the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper in 2017.
Mr. Teixeira is also under investigation in Andorra and Switzerland.
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