FIFA CONFIRM ETHICS PROBE INTO BRAZILIAN FOOTBALL CRISIS

FIFA ethics investigators say they would formally investigate the head of Brazilian soccer after he was indicted.


There are allegations surrounding the football chief Marco Polo del Nero, and it is revealed that he met with FIFA President Gianni Infantino just a few days earlier. Polo del Nero has remained in charge of the Brazilian Football Confederation despite being among those indicted in the American investigation into corruption in the footballing body.

The FIFA ethics division announced recently that they were investigating the former executive committee member since December last year. Currently, Del Nero is free to hold positions in football but the investigatory chamber of the apex football confirm that there would be formal proceedings against Marco Polo del Nero.

Del Nero has not yet faced racketeering and money laundering charges in New York, alongside other suspects from the investigation. Brazil is known for not extraditing its citizens and Del Nero has been careful not to travel out of the country. He even missed the FIFA presidential election in Zurich earlier this year, and the eventual winner’s first congress in Mexico May this year. Infantino made a trip to the Olympics last week where he was pictured to have the suspect at the headquarters of CBF. The picture brought outrage especially for a man that pledged to clean up world football after the era of Sepp Blatter.

The FIFA president responded claiming he could not decline an invitation to meet with top reps of Brazilian football clubs. He claimed they did not talk about investigations or procedures within FIFA at all. Del Nero took an initial leave of absence for three months but returned. The Brazilian senate is still conducting a corruption investigation against him. His predecessor Jose Maria is under house arrest in New York after being extradited from Switzerland. Del Nero was also in Switzerland, but he left immediately and has not returned since.