Just over a month after being elected the new president of the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF), Ednaldo Rodrigues Gomes, faces a series of complaints of mismanagement, ranging from the hiring of his daughter’s company to supply hygiene products for the CBF, until the appointment of his son-in-law to a management position in Brazilian football.
The acts would have been committed while Ednaldo was the interim president of the entity replacing former president Rogério Caboclo, removed after allegations of sexual and moral harassment. On March 23 of that year, as a single candidate, he was elected for a term that runs until 2026, after having almost all the votes cast.
THE CNN obtained access to the complaint sent to the CBF Ethics Council that narrates the alleged acts and that mention that during the period when Ednaldo was interim president of CBF, the company in which the sales executive, Rafaella Galvão Brandt, his daughter, was hired for the provision of hygiene kits during an entity event on awareness of breast cancer prevention.
According to the complaint, Raffaela posted photos of the kits on social media – consisting of a moisturizer, towels, a spa voucher and a breast self-exam card – where it was possible to see the CBF logo. The complaint does not mention values, but points out that the purchase violates the entity’s code of ethics.
CBF was asked about the contract with the company in which the president’s daughter works and replied that the acquisition of these kits fulfilled all the steps and checks provided for in the entity’s governance and compliance policy.
Car distribution on the eve of elections
Also according to the complaint, Ednaldo would also have used CBF contracts to present presidents of football federations across Brazil to buy votes for the election in which he was elected to the top position in Brazilian football. One of these contracts was entered into with a vehicle manufacturer. The document narrates that several cars that were part of this contract with the CBF were sent to leaders on the eve of the elections.
On this fact, CBF reported that it is unaware of any political use and that “since the beginning of the sponsorship contract signed between CBF and Fiat, in 2019, the consideration received in vehicles is distributed annually to members of the Brazilian football structure, whether clubs, federations, arbitration professionals, winners of the Brasileirão Award and even units are drawn among the entity’s employees at the end of the year”, in a note.
other business
During his interim term, Ednaldo also did other family businesses and at the end of last year, he would have nominated his son-in-law, Gabriel Brandt, to be one of the representatives of the CBF with the South American Football Confederation (Conmebol). Since then, Brandt has held the position of football delegate and receives, in addition to payments per game in which he plays, funds for accommodation, food and travel.
The CBF, in turn, reported that even without being an employee of the entity, Brandt had already provided services since 2013 in other positions and that his appointment to play in Conmebol games took place before the inauguration of the current president of the CBF, which took place on December 25, 2013. August 2021. Re-instated after his father-in-law took office, he informed Conmebol that he was the president’s son-in-law, who replied that there was no conflict of interest. See the full note below.
The complaint also points out that Ednaldo would have accepted an offer for a contract that would have resulted in a loss of R$ 4 million to the entity’s coffers. This is because, according to the documents, the license to sell advertising plates for the Supercopa do Brasil 2022 was negotiated for R$ 2 million, replacing an agreement that would have taken place previously and which provided for the payment of R$ 6 million. To hide the scheme, the contract would have been signed on a retroactive date.
CBF informed by note that the static advertising contract relating to the Supercopa do Brasil 2022 was signed by the parties on December 17, 2021 and that on January 5, 2022, a second proposal, encompassing a series of additional commercial properties of the Supercopa was received by the Finance Department.
“Although the value presented by the interested company was higher, the sale of the rights previously signed made it impossible to proceed with the negotiation for this season, according to the informative opinion of the aforementioned Commission to the Presidency of the entity”, he concludes.
Ednaldo Rodrigues Gomes takes over the CBF, the institution that manages Brazilian football, but which remains tainted with corruption over the years. Since 2012, when Ricardo Teixeira resigned as president of the CBF on suspicion of corruption, none of the other successors – José Maria Marin, who ended up in prison in 2015, Marco Polo Del Nero, banned by FIFA in 2018 and Rogério Caboclo, suspended from office , the term ended.
THE CNN contacted Ednaldo, via CBF, to comment on the complaint at the ethics council and for an interview, but the entity informed that it is unaware of the processing of such a complaint and that the “ethics commission is an independent body and has its own operating system” .
Rafaella Brandt was also contacted, but did not respond to calls from the report and did not respond to messages sent via the app.
Gabriel Brandt was also contacted through the contacts stated in the CONMEBOL documents, but did not return to the report.
CBF’s full note on Gabriel Brandt’s nomination
“Mr. Gabriel Brandt has never been a CBF employee and, like other professionals across the country, has been a Press Supervisor in regional, national and international competition games since 2013, having started his activities in the Confederations Cup organized by FIFA in Brazil. . The following year, he served as an official in matches at the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil. At the time, he had no ties to the current acting president of the CBF.
His appointment to play in Conmebol games took place on January 15, 2021, according to the official letter of the CBF General Secretariat number 137/2021, this period being prior to the inauguration of the current CBF president, which took place on August 25, 2021. This appointment obeyed fully comply with the technical and governance and compliance criteria established by the South American entity, which Mr. Gabriel Brandt reported all information.
At the time of his reappointment in December 2021, Gabriel Brandt himself, in the presentation of the requested documentation, informed that he was the son-in-law of the interim president of the CBF. On December 7, 2021, CBF, through the Governance and Compliance Directorate, sent a formal consultation on the subject to the CONMEBOL Directorate of Ethics and Compliance, having received express confirmation that there is no conflict, according to the document received on December 9 2021.”, he says in a note.
Source: CNN Brasil
