Blatter allies with foes of Teixeira and even asks a change in COL

According to the report published today (11) in "O Estado de S. Paulo", Brazil's government is working with FIFA to remove the CBF president, Ricardo Teixeira, from all decisions regarding the 2014 World Cup.

The newspaper said that two meetings in recent days show the maneuver. On Monday (9), Pelé met with the leaders of FIFA in Zurich, Switzerland. The former soccer player declared that he had arrived to "put out the fire", referring to recent tensions between the FIFA president, Joseph Blatter, and the CBF head, and he had authorization from the president Dilma Rousseff to talk about the World Cup preparations.

On Tuesday (10), it was the turn of deputy Romário, who has also been speaking out against Teixeira, have a meeting with Blatter to discuss matters concerning the World Cup General Law.

According to the report, Romário and Blatter wants to create a group formed by members of the Brazilian Congress, the Minister the Sports, the Minister of Finance and a representative of president Dilma Rousseff for, in the coming weeks, making a deal on the World Cup legislation. CBF would be out of this “commission”. 

Joseph Blatter also intends to promote a drastic change in the World Cup Local Organizing Committee (COL) team, now headed by Ricardo Teixeira. As reported in the "O Estado de S. Paulo", Romário would have told the FIFA president that the COL could count on a "skilled in the art" person in charge and "five or six players" supporting him/her. One name has already been ventilated: the former Brazil captain Cafu.

Down
Amid threats of files that show the scandal involving the sports marketing company ISL and FIFA that may be released, Ricardo Teixeira finds himself cornered, with his image battered on both the Brazilian government and FIFA.

Blatter, in turn, has been taking advantage of the moment to build better relationships, according to the "O Estado de S. Paulo", with foes of the Brazilian manager. Romário, who said he was contacted by the international federation, is one of them. The former soccer star even said to the newspaper that it was the "time to close a deal," in reference to the World Cup Law topics interesting to FIFA and that are stopped in the Congress.