No reason to probe Brazil in FIFA scandal

There is no reason Brazil's hosting of last year's World Cup should be probed as part of the FIFA scandal, President Dilma Rousseff insisted in an interview published Monday.

"I do not think the problem is here. But one must investigate all the consequences and relations between FIFA and all the Cups," she was quoted as saying.

US authorities who triggered the uproar by indicting 14 former and current FIFA officials and sports executives for alleged bribery dating back two decades have said they will investigate the process which led to Brazil being chosen to host the Cup in 2014.

The overall probe focuses in large part on payments allegedly made to FIFA officials in exchange for votes to support countries vying to host the world's premier sporting event.

"Brazil is not just any old country. We do not need to pay anyone to host the most lucrative Cup," Rousseff told the newspaper Estado de Sao Paulo.

Besides the US warning of a probe into the Cup that Brazil hosted, Brazilian Justice Minister Jose Eduardo Cardozo also pledged a vigorous probe into corruption allegations.

The former football star turned senator who goes by the name Romario spearheaded the creation of a parliamentary commission in the Senate that is probing corruption in Brazilian football and within the committee that organized the 2014 cup.

Seven FIFA people arrested in Zurich last month included the vice president of the Brazilian football federation, Jose Maria Marin.

The president of the federation, Marco Polo Del Nero, hurried back to Brazil just hours after the arrest of Marin. Del Nero said he had nothing to do with corruption and no intention to resign.
Source: AFP