By Samindra Kunti
December 18 – The Brazilian football association (CBF), has moved swiftly following the 90-day suspension of president Marco Polo Del Nero, appointing Antonio Carlos Nunes on an interim basis.
Last Friday FIFA’s ethics body finally acted against Del Nero, who had been under investigation since 2015. The Brazilian supremo’s name had been a recurring feature of the evidence during the FIFA-gate trial in Brooklyn even inviting comment from judge Pamela Chen suggesting Del Nero must have friends in high place in Zurich, FIFA’s headquarters.
In April 2015 Del Nero had been elected as CBF president to succeed Jose Maria Marin, who had played a prominent role in organising Brazil’s 2014 World Cup. Both CBF presidents were confidants of their predecessor Ricardo Teixeira, who had long reigned over the Brazilian game and enjoyed considerable influence in FIFA’s corridors of power Zurich.
Anotonio Carlos Nunes, who is also known as Coronel Nunes, takes on the interim presidency as the oldest of the four vice-presidents, as per the CBF statutes. Nunes is 79. The other CBF vice-presidents are Fernando Sarney, Gustavo Feijó and Marcus Antônio Vicente, who will assist Nunes in his new role.
Coronel Nunes is a close ally of Del Nero and the president of the Paraense Football Federation. It his sixth mandate in Para, where he is also the colonel of the reserves of the military police. Nunes is another controversial figure to lead Brazilian football.
He is under investigation by Para’s local authorities for his role as president of the Paraense Football Federation. In 2011, 2012 and 2013, the entity received almost 3.5 million reais of public funding and prosecutors want to understand how Nunes spent that money. According to the local authorities, Nunes has furnished an incomplete account of what has happened to the funding.
It’s not the first time that Nunes takes control of the CBF. In 2016, Del Nero asked for leave from his presidency to defend himself against accusations of corruption. At the time, Nunes said that he didn’t believe corruption existed in Brazilian football.
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