Brazil 2014 to be run by ally of former dictatorship

Next year’s World Cup in Brazil is in the hands of an octogenarian politician of fiery temperament closely tied to the former military dictatorship. Jose Maria Marin, 82, assumed control of the organising committee in March, taking over from the controversial businessman Ricardo Teixeira, who had also led the Brazilian Football Federation. It was Teixeira’s idea to have the federation organise the 2014 World Cup, instead of entrusting it to a respected football figure as France did in 1998 with Michel Platini and Germany did in 2006 with Franz Beckenbauer.

Neither Teixeira nor Marin had a career in football, the latter playing just two years in a juvenile league in the 1950s. Marin then pursued a political career with a party tied to Italian Fascists, and enthusiastically supported the 1964 military coup that later put him into the governor’s office of Sao Paolo, the country’s wealthiest state. His critics accuse him of being responsible for the arrest and murder of Vladimir Herzog, news director of TV Cultura. Herzog died under torture in a Sao Paolo military base, three weeks after the then-congressman Marin demanded “measures” to put an end to what he called the programme’s bias.

His appointment to head the federation and control Brazil’s highly anticipated turn on the world stage was met with protests and angry rebuke from left-wing Congressman Adriano Diogo, who accused Marin of having “his hands soaked in the blood spilled by the dictatorship.”

Sports analyst Juca Kfouri suggested that history could make it difficult for Marin to work smoothly with the government of President Dilma Rousseff, a former leftist revolutionary who was imprisoned and tortured by the military junta. Kfouri noted that when both were present at the draw for the FIFA Confederations Cup in December, Rousseff’s speech included a reference to respect for human rights, “which was unusual.” The polemic over Marin extends to his irascible temperament and public behaviour that has made him an object of media ridicule.

Most notably, Marin was caught by television cameras a year ago pocketing the medal that he was supposed to have awarded to the goalkeeper of the winning team in the Copa Sao Paulo. His main decision as head of the federation thus far was to dismiss Mano Menezes as the national coach in October. He initially said he would name a new coach in January, but reversed himself five days later by hiring Luiz Felipe Scolari.

In an interview with Folha de Sao Paulo, Marin said that he rushed the announcement to accommodate FIFA president Joseph Blatter, and then later said that his words were “misinterpreted.” He then reacted angrily to a reporter who asked whether his choice of Scolari had received the blessing of Rousseff. “I assume the responsibility and do not report to anyone,” he barked, and said journalists who had pressed for Spaniard Josep Guardiola to be named coach were “unpatriotic.”

For Kfouri, the current state of Brazilian football that has it ranked 18 by FIFA owes to the leadership structure, which is “reactionary, intractable, corrupting and corruptible.” “They are killing the goose that laid the golden egg,” he said. Nevertheless, he envisions a grand event next year. “Brazil will party like rarely seen before,” Kfouri said.