(Reuters) - FIFA president Sepp Blatter is planning to meet the outspoken president of the Brazilian FA (CBF) Ricardo Teixeira over remarks he has made against England and for snubbing Pele by not inviting him to the World Cup draw on Saturday.
Teixeira, 64, a FIFA executive committee member who has been surrounded by controversy for years, recently accused the English of being “pirates” saying they “could go to hell.”
On Friday he refused to talk to English journalists, calling them “corrupt” after a media scuffle involving his entourage following a news conference ahead of the draw.
Blatter told reporters that Teixeira’s criticism of England was not good for FIFA’s image and he was upset that Pele was not invited to the draw, although he would now be there.
Blatter said: “Sure I will speak to him but I have already said once, I’m not the man who is responsible for the moral or ethical approach of the members of FIFA or the members of the executive committee. I’m not their conscience.”
Blatter added: “It is his responsibility, what he is doing. I am not so sure that all of that is in my spirit of fair play.”
Teixeira is upset with the English after David Triesman, the former head of the English FA, accused him in a Parliamentary inquiry of asking for a bribe in return for his vote for England’s bid to stage the 2018 World Cup finals.
NO EVIDENCE
A subsequent inquiry found no evidence for Triesman’s allegation and FIFA cleared him of any wrongdoing, but Teixeira, in an interview with a Brazilian magazine last week said he would make the lives of the English FA and the English media very difficult during the World Cup, if England qualify.
Texeira is also furious about allegations made by BBC’s Panorama program that he took bribes totaling nearly 6.0 million pounds ($9.9 million) from collapsed FIFA TV rights company ISL in the 1990s.
In another interview Teixeira was quoted as saying that Triesman had made his allegations against him because the FA were angry they lost the World Cup bid. He called the English “a bunch of pirates”
Teixeira, who has a had a long-running feud with Pele, also angered Brazilians by not inviting the man widely regarded as the world’s greatest ever player, to Saturday’s draw.
Pele was going to be absent from the global showpiece until Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff stepped in this week and named him as Brazil’s international World Cup ambassador,
Blatter said he was surprised that Pele would otherwise have missed the first major milestone on the way to the finals.
“I am surprised he was not invited and I will be looking into it,” added Blatter.
These latest problems come at an awkward time for Blatter who is attempting to clean up FIFA’s image in the wake of bribery and corruption allegations against nine of his 24-man executive committee.
Teixeira, who at one point was married to the daughter of former FIFA president Joao Havelange, has been in charge of the CBF since 1989.
He refutes criticism of his federation, insisting that it is a private entity which survives without outside help.
Teixeira survived a Congressional inquiry in 2001 which, in its final report, accused him of negligent administration, mixing personal and football-related business and living in luxury at his organization’s expense.
He has turned the national team into a lucrative operation with multi-million dollar sponsorship deals and huge sums for the CBF in appearance money from friendly internationals around the world.
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