Brazilian football tries to clean its image with new president

RIO DE JANEIRO: The next president of the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) took office with allies hoping he can clean up the image of the scandal-tainted body.

Rogerio Caboclo, a 46-year-old finance lawyer, ran as the only candidate and follows a group of men who have been discredited, investigated, suspended from FIFA and even jailed because of corruption.

“I am aware of CBF’s worn out image, I will face this. We will increase our governance controls. I will not tolerate any suspicious practice of misconduct,” Caboclo said in his inauguration speech.

One of his predecessors, Marco Polo del Nero, was key to Caboclo’s election by removing other candidates from contention.

The former CBF president, who had the job from 2015-2018, doesn’t travel outside Brazil because of the risk of imminent arrest.

The biggest challenges for Caboclo will be ending Brazil’s World Cup title drought, dating back to 2002, improving the country’s youth teams and moving the national governing body away from scandal. His election slogan was “transparency and efficiency”.

Besides running the confederation, Caboclo will also lead the organising committee of this year’s Copa America, which will be played in Brazil from June 14-July 7.

But he started with some smaller measures, such as announcing that former Arsenal, Barcelona and Manchester City defender Sylvinho will be Brazil’s coach for the Tokyo Olympics next year.

He also revealed a redesign of the Brazil crest, with a sharper blue tone around CBF’s name and fewer stripes on each side.

Instead of two yellow stripes with a green one in the middle, the new design only includes one yellow and one green stripe.

The Brazilian also tried to distance himself from his mentor Del Nero.

“I am grateful to those that preceded me. But I have total independence,” the new CBF head said.

Caboclo started football in the early 2000s at Sao Paulo as finance director.

ThenhetookthesameroleatSao Paulo state’s football federation, chaired then by Del Nero.

He also worked in the 2014 World Cup organising committee as a link between FIFA and the CBF, chaired then by Jose Maria Marin, who is currently serving a four-year sentence in New York for corruption.

Saint-Clair Milesi, the former communications director of the World Cup in Brazil, said Caboclo’s style could help the CBF’s image.

“He was a calming presence in our committee at a time Marin took over the CBF because of investigations on his predecessor, Ricardo Teixeira,” Milesi said.

“Caboclo was the man dealing with the tougher problems in a way that Marin could understand and make his decisions.

“He also speaks English, which is a plus if you think of the last heads of the CBF.”

Caboclo was also the head of Brazil’s delegation at the World Cup in Russia.