Inquiry blames Teixeira for Brazilian football corruption

CBF chief Ricardo Teixeira has been accused of tax evasion, mismanagement of Brazilian football and misusing CBF funds by the Congressional commission investigating corruption in the Brazilian game.

The Commission wants Teixeira charged with criminal offences for trafficking of minors to falsifying documents to be made against 31 other CBF officials and football agents at work in Brazil.

Nike - who sponsor the Brazilian national team and the CBF to the tune of more than $100 million - are also accused of wielding too much power and influence on the Brazil team after deals struck by Teixeira.

The commission in the lower house of Brazil's Congress has been in session since September and has interviewed more than 250 figures involved in the Brazilian national game which has been overwhelmed by corruption and vice in the past twenty years. Teixeira was the protégé of former FIFA president Joao Havelange and is his son-in-law and under his leadership the once successful Brazilian national team has sunk to unprecedented lows.

The 800-page report produced by the commission's general secretary Silvio Torres and released publicly on Thursday consistently attacks Teixeira.

The report is now to be approved and finalised by the commission's 48 members next week and lists 13 crimes committed by Teixeira involving tax evasion and misuse of funds. The findings will be passed to public prosecutors if the report is approved next week.

The largest piece of single corruption found was a $10 million loan at high interest rates to try and defeat exchange rate controls.

Teixeira's tax declarations were incompatible with transactions investigated by the commission and more than trebling his salary from 1998 to 2000.

"The commission recommends measures, including legal ones, which promote the return to the organisation's tills of the money which was wrongly received by the president and the directors," the report said.

As well as managing the CBF as his own personal bank at times Teixeira has a side line as a farmer and milk from his dairies received financial backing from the CBF as did bars owned by the CBF president.

The CBF's expenditure had increased by 400% in the last four years as the fortunes of the national team have dipped.

"The conclusion of this investigation is that the CBF is being administered in the wrong way," the report said. "Accountant say that if it were a company, it would have been insolvent at the end of 2000."

Nke were blamed for an incident at the 1998 World Cup finals when the Brazil team left a training session early to attend an event promoted by Nike.

The report slams contract clauses negotiated by Teixeira and Nike which it said stipulated that Brazil would play five matches a year in which Nike chooses the venues, opponents and keeps the proceeds and in which the Brazil coach was obliged to pick eight of its top stars.

Nike is now linked with a £1 billion move to buy Manchester United but its activities with the CBF, Teixeira and the Brazil team damage its credibility according to the report.