Anti-English Brazil football president Teixeira to step down after 23 years at the top



Brazil football chief Ricardo Teixeira will step down as president of the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) after 23 years in charge.

The controversial FIFA executive, who is also in charge of Brazil’s preparations for the 2014 World Cup, is embroiled in corruption allegations.

Last year he was cleared by a FIFA probe after former FA chairman Lord Triesman sensationally accused him of demanding bribes to vote for England’s 2018 World Cup bid.

Chief: Ricardo Teixeira has dominated Brazilian football

At home, he is the focus of a parliamentary inquiry over funds for a friendly match played by the Brazil national team and is also the subject of a fraud squad investigation into allegations of money-laundering.

Teixeira formerly branded the British 'pirates' and declared the English press 'corrupt'.



He has also angered many Brazilians by publicly snubbing football legend Pele, with whom he has had a long-running feud.

Teixeira’s exit comes days before a damning report is expected to be released by FIFA into collapsed TV rights company ISL, which could implicate him in a huge bribery scandal.

According to Brazil’s O Globo newspaper, his successor will be Jose Maria Marin, one of the vice presidents of the CBF and the organisation’s representative for Brazil’s south-east region.

The allegations that Teixeira took bungs totalling nearly pounds six million in the 1990s, for rubber-stamping World Cup TV contracts, were made by the BBC’s Panorama in 2010.

Feud: He reportedly has a long-running feud with football legend Pele

Synonymous: Teixeira has been in charge for 23 years and is the face of Brazilian football

Furious at the corruption charges, he later caused outrage by branding Britain 'the pirates of the world', claiming they had made the allegations because the FA were angry they lost the World Cup bid.

He also told a Brazilian magazine he would make England’s life 'hell' during the 2014 World Cup, adding: 'While I’m at the CBF, at FIFA, they won’t get past the door.'

Teixeira has also faced mounting criticism closer to home with growing dissatisfaction at his running of Brazilian football, and Brazil’s stalling preparations for the 2014 World Cup, adding to the pressure for him to go.

Teixeira’s dislike of Pele, widely regarded as the world’s greatest ever player, caused more disquiet last July, when he refused to invite him to the World Cup draw in Rio de Janeiro.

Pele explained: 'You only go to a party if you’re invited. The CBF has a president, Ricardo Teixeira. He decides who he wants to invite and who he doesn’t. And he didn’t invite me.'

Pele was going to be absent from the global showpiece until Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff stepped in and named him as Brazil’s international World Cup ambassador.