CPI das Apostas wants to limit bets on goal and result – 19/09/2023 – Sport

The CPI das Apostas will end without having heard either the mafia leaders or the president of the CBF (Brazilian Football Confederation), Ednaldo Rodrigues, who had motivated the articulation so that the deadline for the group’s work could be extended.

The commission’s final report, by deputy Felipe Carreras (PSB-PB), was filed on Tuesday night (19) and has almost 250 pages. According to the rules, two sessions are needed for it to be finally voted on.

In the text, Carreras proposes some measures to try to combat the scenario. “Brazilian football (and sport in general) is very exposed to the criminal practice of manipulating results, due to the growth of the sports betting market.”

Among them is the limitation that bets can only be placed on goals or the result of a given match. It also suggests the obligation for managers to communicate suspicions of manipulation and the uniformity of penalties applied by the Sports Court to the authorities, considering that the punishments for the athletes involved in the case were discrepant.

With its report presented, the commission will come to an end without hearing Ednaldo Rodrigues or any of the six denounced by the Public Ministry of Goiás as leaders of a betting mafia that worked to manipulate results in Brazilian football.

The members of the group even arranged for the CPI, which initially had a deadline of the 14th, to be extended. The request was accepted by the President of the Chamber, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), and Ednaldo’s testimony was scheduled for this Wednesday (20).

However, as the report needs to be presented two commissions in advance of the end of the commission and the new deadline stipulated by Lira was next Tuesday (26), in the end, the CBF president’s testimony was cancelled.

The hearing with Ednaldo was canceled on other occasions, at the request of his defense, who claimed that he was traveling with the Brazilian team.

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.

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.

The CPI report states that, as those responsible for the mafia have already been reported to the courts, it will not seek indictments.

“It is worth noting that this Commission did not see the existence of sufficient evidence of authorship and materiality of illicit acts that would justify new indictments, whether for action or omission”, says the text.

The report also proposes four legislative projects. One to determine that “sports justice must ensure that the penalties applied are proportionate and consistent with the principle of equality”.

Another to force directors and managers to report suspicions of manipulation, a third to include punishment for those who place or intermediate bets in institutions not certified by the federal government — when the regulation of the issue in progress was finally completed.

And a third legal provision that aims to “prohibit the placing of bets on individual actions or conduct in the game”, such as cards taken or kicks, and which establishes that “only fixed-odd lottery bets that have as their object the number of goals scored by each team or the final result of each match”.

The report will still be assessed by the committee and may be changed before being approved.