New blow for brazilian soccer chiefs

Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) president Ricardo Teixeira and 26 directors from around the country were present at the meeting, details of which were splashed across the Brazilian media.
The tape was first played by Radio Gaucho, based in the southern city of Porto Alegre. The station did not reveal the source of the tape.
The recording revealed that the directors are planning to pressurise members of the Brazilian Senate, where a commission of inquiry has been investigating the administration of the sport for the last year.
Teixeira has been one of the commission’s main targets. He has already been questioned once and is due to return for a second session in October.
“We have a World Cup final which finishes in October,” Teixeira was heard to say. “We can’t just talk about this. We need to attack the Senators from all sides.”
“We can’t afford (the commission’s) report to be approved….I know what they’re preparing in the Senate. Don’t imagine that it’s just Ricardo Teixeira and the CBF they will be after…The entire structure of Brazilian football is at stake.”
The commission is one of two which were set up last year to investigate alleged mismanagement and corruption in Brazilian soccer following a public outcry at the chaotic state of the game.
The other commission, in the lower house of Congress, has already produced its final report in which it accused Teixeira of evading exchange controls and illegally paying himself a salary from CBF funds.
Teixeira reacted angrily to the latest development. In a statement, he described the recording of the meeting as “a criminal act.”
“The comments attributed to my person, by the clandestine recording, happened after a few days in which I was the victim of twisted and distorted attacks and lies, and the emotional context was aggravated by the fact I’m suffering problems with my health,” he said
“My conscience is clear,” he added.
Brazilian football is still reeling from the effects of a stinging documentary aired by the powerful Globo television network eight days ago in which Teixeira was accused of a number of irregularities.
On Wednesday, the kick-off time for Brazil’s World Cup qualifier away to Argentina next month was altered from 21.45 to 20.00 – an inconvenient time for Globo.
Club presidents have already expressed concern at the situation in the CBF.
Teixeira, who has not been seen in public since, issued another statement earlier this week in which he said he would not resign.
He also said that the growth of his personal patrimony was compatible with his tax returns and complained that personal details of his financial life, which were examined by the Congressional commissions of inquiry, had been leaked to the media.
Brazilian football is in crisis with plummeting attendances, an exodus of the best players to foreign clubs and domestic clubs in chronic financial difficulties.
Even the once-mighty national team has been affected, suffering a string of unprecedented defeats to teams such as Honduras, Australia, Ecuador, Chile and Paraguay.
Reuters