Bets: CPI will be extended to hear CBF president – 09/12/2023 – Sports

The CPI (Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry) on sports betting, which could end this Thursday (14), is not expected to hear any of the six denounced by the Public Ministry of Goiás as leaders of a betting mafia that acted to manipulate results in the Brazilian football.

The president of the Chamber, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), had informed other deputies that he would not extend any House committee. The list of those ending this Thursday also includes the MST and the Americanas.

According to the CPI rapporteur, Felipe Carreras (PSB-CE), an exception was made so that the president of the CBF (Brazilian Football Confederation), Ednaldo Rodrigues, could be heard on the 20th.

“The president [Lira] guaranteed the extension, so much so that next week we expect the presence of the president of the CBF. He did not guarantee the deadline that he will extend, but he guaranteed that it will be extended”, he stated. For this reason, he has not yet presented his report on the commission’s work.

The Public Ministry names Bruno Lopez as the leader of the criminal organization that manipulated results. He and his companion, Camila Silva da Motta, suspected of being a member of the group’s leadership, were summoned to give testimony, but the hearing was never scheduled by the president of the commission, deputy Júlio Arcoverde (PP-PI).

The body also indicates four more names as members of the groups of financiers and operators of the criminal scheme, all of whom were reported to the courts, but who did not even have requests to be called to testify.

Arcoverde, who is responsible for scheduling the hearings, did not answer why the mafia leaders were not heard.

“The dispute involving pressure on bookmakers on the one hand and protection in relation to them on the other ended up being the prevailing lobby. In practice, fundamental hearings for the investigation of the CPI’s object ended up not taking place”, stated deputy Glauber Braga (PSOL -RJ), author of the summons requests for Bruno and Camila.

Among the hearing requests approved by the commission during its more than three-month duration are members of the Federal Police and the Public Ministry, businesspeople in the sports betting sector —including foreigners— and names in football.

The invitations included players who participated in the scheme, the director who denounced the coup, members of the CBF, representatives of the referees and people with no indication of connection with the group, such as coach Abel Ferreira and full-back Gabriel Menino, both from Palmeiras.

As shown by Sheetconversations intercepted by the Public Prosecutor’s Office indicate that Bruno Lopez had involved his parents and in-laws in the scheme and asked his mother to “pray hard” for the scam to be successful.

The first phase of Operation Maximum Penalty was launched by the Public Ministry in February this year. According to the complaint, the group operated in groups. Bruno, in addition to leading the entire operation, commanded the main one, called bettors, of which Camila is also part.

Now, the CPI is discussing hearing from Rodrigues, from the CBF, later this month. He was called to a session, but replied, through his lawyer, that he could not attend, “as he had already undertaken unavoidable professional commitments” — in this case, the Brazilian team’s matches in the World Cup qualifiers, one in Belém, last Friday (8), and another this Tuesday (12), in Lima, Peru.

In the same document, the defense of the CBF president says that he will then go to a meeting at Conmebol (South American Football Confederation) and only return to Rio de Janeiro on Saturday (15). Therefore, your hearing must be scheduled for the 20th, a Wednesday.

The parliamentarians’ objective is to question whether, in light of the warnings about possible manipulation of results in Brazilian football, the CBF contacted the responsible authorities or took some other action.

So far, 11 players have already been penalized by the STJD (Superior Court of Sports Justice), with sanctions ranging from a one-year suspension to a ban from the sport.

This Monday (11), FIFA (International Football Federation) expanded the understanding of the Brazilian court to the entire world — some of these athletes had signed contracts with teams abroad.

This is the case of Eduardo Bauermann, a defender who played for Santos and, after being punished, signed a contract with a club in Turkey — which has now released him. He was called to be heard by the CPI, but a habeas corpus released him.

Marcos Vinicius Alves Barreira, who was a Vila Nova player and is known as Romarinho, was one of the few names directly involved in the scheme who gave testimony to the CPI.

At the time, he stated that Bruno Lopez even told him, during the negotiations for him to accept joining the coup, that he had already signed an agreement with athletes from Cruzeiro, Atlético Mineiro and Avaí.

The commission also heard the president of Vila Nova, Hugo Jorge Bravo, who was the one who reported the scheme to the Goiás Public Ministry. It also spoke to the prosecutor in charge of the case, Fernando Martins Cesconetto, and the state’s attorney general, Cyro Terra Peres.

Nino Paraíba, who spent time in América-MG, Bahia and Ceará, gave a statement to the group. He is one of the athletes who have already confessed to having accepted money in exchange for participating in the mafia.