OpEd: Why I Worked to Drop Carlos Arthur Nuzman

(ATR) The following OpEd appeared on the personal website of Brazilian lawyer Alberto Murray Neto, and can be found here. It has been translated and edited for clarity below.

For ten years I have endeavored to denounce Carlos Nuzman's ills. I did everything that was within my reach. I accompanied your activities in the Brazilian Olympic Committee. I have denounced, divulged, propagated, published, investigated, wrote to the Federal Prosecutor several times, went to the Federal Senate, collaborated with parliamentarians who wanted to install an Olympic CPMI (which was never installed), helped competent journalists about the President of the COB. I frequently communicated with several members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and several of them, former friends of our family, listened to me. I gave the IOC a lot of documentation. Although in a few moments I seemed to be an isolated voice surrounded by people deluded by the cavalier speech of the chanter, I never ceased to believe the words of Gandhi, who said "There have been tyrants, murderers...And, for a while, they seem invincible. But in the end, they always fall. Always think about it."

I have full conviction that my perseverance has contributed to the overthrow of Carlos Arthur Nuzman of the sport world. I have been read and heard over time.

I was an athlete. I come from a family of athletes. My sons and my nephews are athletes. I have the honor and privilege of being the grandson of one of the greatest exponents of the Olympism in Brazil, Major Sylvio de Magalhães Padilha, who with errors and correctness, but always with passion and honesty, created the basis of sport and physical education in Brazil. As my grandfather always warned, "If sports do not walk with education, it will not work." He followed closely his work, knowing his history, which definitely incorporated the sport in my life. The Olympic Movement is, above all, a philosophy of life, which advocates the union of peoples through sport and that through the practice of physical activity we can become better citizens. I try to have Olympism as my philosophy of life.

I met Carlos Nuzman very early when I was still a child and he was Brazilian Volleyball Confederation President. Very early on I learned to observe the sport, the behavior of the Confederations, the personalities of its leaders. There were many who admired, while others, not so much. In 1979, Nuzman democratically desired the presidency of the Brazilian Olympic Committee. He had every right to be a candidate, even because at that time the statute of the entity was democratic and was far from being the "anachronistic institutional act" that he pushed down the Confederations, beginning in 1996. Nuzman lost the election to my grandfather. I followed the whole process very closely.

Some may feel that my rejection of Nuzman goes back to the fact that he opposed my grandfather in the COB. That's not it. I followed closely that election and its backstage. Nuzman thought that money was capable of solving any question. In COB it was not. Nuzman was wrong. My grandfather never allowed him to bother with the Olympic money, which at the time was very rare. Nuzman ran a sordid campaign, perfidious, nauseating and repulsive. He insisted on the same disgusting methods in subsequent years, but he did not even get his candidacy to stand. He came to take over the COB in 1996, in a statutory shambles between him and André Richer, whereby they would switch positions in the middle of the mandate, that is, Richer would become vice-president, and Nuzman would take over the presidency. It was there, at that moment, with that immoral statutory collusion, that Nuzman became COB president. Nuzman never disputed an election for the COB. In the following cycles, he only took care of intimidating the Confederations with threats of financial strangulation and imposed himself as a single candidate. Notice Nuzman twice competed for the IOC Executive Committee and once for the PASO presidency. He lost all three. It was the only time Nuzman had to face competitors. He never succeeded.

I feel obliged to carry the legacy that my grandfather left for the sport. It's a personal matter. Nuzman in the COB represented everything I've always disbelieved in sports. His concern was, first of all, to use the position for personal promotion. In addition, he had no regard for the construction of the base of sport. Yes, the COB has this obligation, since it has received a large amount of public money. It should have the obligation to give the company the compensation, with a concern to democratize access to the practice of sport. This was beyond the ideas of Carlos Nuzman.

In 1996 Nuzman invited me to join the general assembly of the COB. Without any kind of agreement with him, I accepted. A former COB member warned me:"Do not think Nuzman wants it on COB because he thinks you can contribute. On the contrary, he thinks that you are someone who can take the job from him, so he wants to have you around." I noticed that the COB assemblies were a mere referendum on everything that had previously been defined by Nuzman and a very small group of advisors, people whom he absolutely agreed with. The confederations were banned, and the few times I saw any president disagree with anything, he was received with rudeness. The fear of expression prevailed between the Confederations. The fear of retaliation was gigantic. The confederation presidents know that I am right.

The preparation for the 2007 Pan American Games Rio was a complete ruin, a demonstration of the undesirable crony capitalism. Everything was done for the benefit of a select group of friendly businessmen and politicians. Tourism agencies, brokers, construction companies, sports marketing companies, banks, insurance brokers, and call centers gravitated around the COB and the Organizing Committee. The sport was the least important. Real bidding was something that did not exist for those people, that tiny dome that controlled a flood of public money. The final bill came out 1,000 percent more expensive for the Brazilian people. I denounced all that, I can say, every day. I never gave up.

I fought against the Olympic Games in Rio. I did so for ideological and practical reasons. Ideological because I faithfully believe that in a nation whose people are deprived of good food, housing, security, health, transportation, sport for all and everything, to spend public money to hold a great party that would bring no benefit would be a reversal of values. I never believed in the official speech, a fanfare, a populace that the Olympic Games would be the salvation of Rio and Brazil. On the contrary, considering also that the organizers of the Olympic Games would be the same ones that directed the Pan American Games. My belief was that the Rio 2016 event would mean yet another act of abundant corruption that would aggravate the situation of the Country and the City. Once again, I was right. It is enough to observe what happened and everything that has been discovered with the investigations of the Federal Police and the Public Ministry.

The sport did not advance even one meter after the Olympic Games. On the contrary, the financial and moral crisis of the sport has led the Confederations and the athletes to the condition of insecurity and the future is absolutely uncertain. Even though we have a new COB president who shows good intentions today, he will have a difficult job ahead of him. The malaise began with the purchase of votes and was spread by the various works that were made at the expense of the Brazilian people's money.

Throughout my life and in my wandering around the world I have experienced innumerable situations with Carlos Nuzman, those that generate the deepest feeling of shame. Nuzman seemed to be ashamed of himself. He could do anything to appear to be what he never was. I saw, I was an eyewitness, from so many passages that made him a ridiculous personality abroad. The oldest members of the IOC, respected people in the Olympic world, shared my thoughts.

Carlos Nuzman has always been pernicious to the sport. Let it not be said that "despite everything, he did a lot because he brought the Olympics to Brazil". That is to be complicit with corruption. There is not a single act that may have been positive that could justify corruption. During my battle, I received several veiled endorsements from many athletes and some Confederations. I have always understood perfectly well that both athletes and presidents were not at liberty to speak publicly what they thought. But this made me realize that, when the dictator fell, there would be people capable of carrying out the Brazilian Olympic project. I never demanded heroism from anyone.

There are a lot of good people in the sport. In COB there are many competent people. The question now is to renew the credibility of our Olympic Movement and make it, again, the moral reserve of the national sport.

I was right. I always attacked Carlos Nuzman based on facts, knowledge, information and evidence. I was right. Nuzman has been arrested, has resigned from the COB, will be banned from the IOC and will never again participate in anything related to the world of sports.

I will continue my fight, defending my Olympic ideals and safeguarding the memory and legacy of my grandfather, the guardian angel of the Brazilian sport.

That's why I helped topple Carlos Arthur Nuzman.

Written by Alberto Murray Neto

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