FIFA issued a warning to Brazil, stating that if its football body intervenes and results in the election of a new president in January, it may suspend its national teams and clubs from international competitions. In a letter to a Brazilian football executive, FIFA threatened to suspend the CBF, the country’s football federation, if it did not heed its advice to hold off on holding Ednaldo Rodrigues’s reelection as president. The Associated Press was able to obtain the document.
Due to anomalies in Rodrigues’ election from the previous year, a Rio de Janeiro court removed him from office on December 7 along with all of his CBF appointees. Last week, the two highest courts in Brazil confirmed that decision. FIFA, the body that oversees football, has a history of rejecting intervention from the government and outside parties in its member associations. As a result, Brazil, the five-time World Cup winners, may be excluded from important competitions until the crisis is resolved.
Jose Perdiz, the head of Brazil’s highest sports court, was also named as an intervenor in the Rio court ruling, with the responsibility of setting up fresh presidential elections in less than 30 working days. In earlier correspondence with CBF, FIFA stated that it believed the intervention to be excessive. The chief members’ association officer of FIFA, Kenny Jean-Marie, and the deputy secretary-general of CONMEBOL, Monserrat Jimenez Garcia, signed the letter on Sunday. In the letter, FIFA and CONMEBOL, the governing bodies of South American football, also stated that they would set up a commission to address the issue in Brazil on January 8.
“FIFA and CONMEBOL would like to emphasize once again that no decision affecting CBF, including any elections or calls for elections, shall be made until such a mission is carried out. If this is not adhered to, FIFA will be forced to present the case to the appropriate body for review and decision-making, which may involve a suspension, according to the letter.
“We would also like to emphasize for the sake of good order that CBF will immediately forfeit all of its membership rights if the relevant FIFA body suspends it, and that this suspension will not be lifted until FIFA lifts it. Additionally, it stated that “while it is suspended, CBF representatives and club teams would not be eligible to participate in any international competition.”