Rio court dismisses CBF president

The Court of Justice of Rio de Janeiro (TJ-RJ) removed Ednaldo Rodrigues from the presidency of the CBF in a trial held this Thursday. By 3 votes to 0, the 21st Chamber of Private Law considered that the Public Ministry of Rio (MP-RJ) did not have the legitimacy to act on matters linked to the confederation, considering that it is a private entity. The court also established that the president of the Superior Court of Sports Justice (STJD), José Perdiz, will act as an intervenor in the CBF until new elections are called. The CBF will appeal.

This Thursday’s trial dealt with the legality of a Conduct Adjustment Term (TAC) signed by the CBF and the Public Ministry of Rio in March last year. At that time, the TAC allowed the CBF General Assembly to elect Ednaldo Rodrigues to lead the entity.

The agreement was signed because the MP-RJ considered the rules governing the election in the Brazilian confederation to be illegal. This is because a change in the entity’s statute, in 2017, established different weights for the votes cast by federations and clubs in Series A and B. In practice, all the federations needed to do was vote together to define the president.

It was under this rule that Rogério Caboclo, appointed by the removed president Marco Polo del Nero, was elected president of the CBF that year. And one of his deputies was Ednaldo Rodrigues himself, who would end up taking command of the entity on an interim basis when Caboclo was removed, amid allegations of harassment – which he always denied and for which he was cleared in court.

Ednaldo’s opponents tried to block the March 2022 election by claiming that the TAC was signed by him, as interim president, and served to endorse an election that would make him de facto president. This Thursday, the Rio Court accepted the claim.

FIFA sent a letter to the CBF

In the midst of this movement in Justice, which would have among the top-hat organizers removed by FIFA, last week the highest entity in world football sent a notification to the CBF warning that the confederation could be suspended if Ednaldo Rodrigues was removed “due to undue influence from third parties “

“We would like to remind you that in accordance with art. 14 par. 1 i) and art. 19 of the FIFA Statutes, FIFA member associations are obliged to manage their affairs independently and without undue influence from third parties. of these obligations may lead to potential sanctions, as provided for in the FIFA Statutes”, said an excerpt from the document.

“Furthermore, and in relation to the above, we would like to emphasize that any violations of art. 14 par. 1 i) of the FIFA Statutes may also lead to sanctions, even if the influence of third parties was not the fault of the member association in question (art. 14, paragraph 3 of the FIFA Statutes)”, the text added.

This Thursday, FIFA and Conmebol reiterated the warning, in response to consultations carried out by the secretary general of the CBF, Alcino Reis. If the suspension goes ahead, one of the first practical consequences could be the exclusion of Fluminense from the Club World Cup, scheduled for this month in Saudi Arabia.