Teixeira Quits Brazil 2014 as FIFA Boss Heads for Showdown Talks with Rousseff

(ATR) Ricardo Teixeira has quit as head of Brazil 2014 and the country's FA but Around the Rings is told that both the CBF and World Cup organizing committee did not officially notify FIFA for several hours after the announcement.

FIFA said in a statement on Tuesday morning that it had received word of his resignation in writing last night from both bodies. "The CBF and the LOC have also officially confirmed to FIFA that 79-year-old Jose Maria Marin will be the successor of Teixeira in those two positions," the statement said.

CBF's acting president Marin had announced at the CBF's Rio headquarters that Teixeira, a FIFA Ex-Co member since 1994, was stepping down on Monday afternoon local time in Rio de Janeiro.

"I leave the presidency of the CBF permanently with the sense of mission accomplished," Teixeira said in a statement. "I did what was within my reach, sacrificing my health. I was criticized in the losses and undervalued in the victories."

Teixeira, who has run the CBF since 1989, is credited with helping revitalize the fortunes of the Brazilian football team. They lifted the World Cup in 1994 and 2002.

Brazilian sports minister Aldo Rebelo said his government would continue to "work in harmony" with 2014 World Cup organizers to ensure a successful tournament. Marin now joins Ronaldo and Bebeto, another former Brazil star, in fronting the organizing committee for FIFA's quadrennial showpiece.

The resignation of 64-year-old Teixeira, once talked of as a successor to FIFA president Sepp Blatter, comes a week after he was given medical leave amid the pressure of getting delay-hit World Cup preparations back on track and following a string of corruption allegations that have undermined his position as leader of Brazil's World Cup preparations and damaged FIFA's reputation.

Teixeira was among the senior football administrators accused by BBC Panorama in autumn 2010 of having taken kickbacks from World Cup broadcast deals struck by ISL in the 1990s before the marketing firm collapsed in 2001. The presidents of CONMEBOL and CAF, Nicolas Leoz and Issa Hayatou, were also implicated in the $100 million bribery scandal.

He has also faced allegations of money laundering through the CBF and financial irregularities in organizing a Brazil v Portugalfriendly in 2008.

Teixeira has denied wrongdoing in both instances.

During the England 2018 World Cup campaign, former Football Association chairman David Triesman claimed Teixeira and three other FIFA Ex-Co members had behaved unethically.

He told a British parliamentary inquiry into England's failure to secure 2018 hosting rights that Teixeira asked him to "come and tell me what you have got for me", the implication being that he had sought an inducement in exchange for backing England. Teixeira rubbished Triesman's claims.

Teixeira could be seen as the latest scalp in Blatter's bid to clean house in the wake of a flood of bribery allegations during the World Cup 2018/2022 bid contest that soiled the reputations of over a third of his 24-man Executive Committee.

The Brazilian is the fourth major Ex-Co member forced out of FIFA amid the wave of corruption allegations that have engulfed the crisis-hit body.

In 2010, Ocean Football Confederation boss Reynald Temarii was the first to be suspended and then banned by FIFA following cash-for-votes allegations during the 2018/2022 World Cup bid process.

CONCACAF's Jack Warner quit last summer after a leaked FIFA Ethics Committee report said there was "compelling" evidence he conspired with Asian football boss Mohamed Bin Hammam to bribe Caribbean football voters during the FIFA presidential election. Bin Hammam was slapped with a lifetime ban from football, a sanction he is appealing in a hearing at the Court of Arbitration for Sport next month.

It seems certain that Teixeira will now also be forced to relinquish his seat on the FIFA Ex-Co, as it is a position elected through CONMEBOL.

Blatter is scheduled to head to Brazil later this week for clear-the-air talks with Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff following Jerome Valcke's recent stinging criticism of Brazil's World Cup preparations that damaged FIFA's relations with the country's government.

He will also likely meet Teixeira's replacement Marin, with Valcke due to arrive next week for an inspection visit and host city tour as part of a FIFA delegation.

Marin, the man charged with delivering the World Cup, is no stranger to controversy himself. Links to video of him pocketing a winner's medal while presenting prizes to players at a Sao Paulo tournament earlier this year are now doing the rounds on Twitter.

By INSIDER editor Mark Bisson

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