How the domino effect was generated that could disaffiliate Brazil from FIFA and leave it out of the next World Cup

Brazilian football is experiencing the consequences of the call butterfly Effect: a succession of events that apparently have no connection but which, together, end up causing unpredictable consequences. See if not: with six contested dates of the South American qualifiers the canarinha It occupies the last step of qualification for the United States/Mexico/Canada 2026. But that’s not all: in the last few hours FIFA has admitted that it could intervene and sanction the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) and up to the disaffiliation of his national team and its clubs.

Butterfly, snowball or Karma effect. The first link in the chain has a name: former CBF president Rogério Caboclo. Nine days before the start of the Copa América 2021 which hosted Brazil, the Brazilian football boss was denounced by sexual and moral abuse.

The shock was enormous, but nothing to suggest future consequences. Cabloco served as financial advisor to St. Paul between 2000 and 2002 and was a life consultant for that institution. He was elected president of the CBF in 2018 and was supposed to end his term in 2023. The man arrived as part of a closing cycle after, following the FIFA Gate, three of his predecessors had to leave their positions to corruption.

However, Cabloco’s cycle was also interrupted. The accusations were precise and placed the abuse in 2020, with gruesome details and numerous testimonies. The CBF Ethics Commission removed him from office temporarily and then the General Assembly of the Confederation suspended it decidedly. By now it was no longer just a complaint, as other workers at the organization added their own.

Chronologically, the Brazilian national team had already lost the Copa América on home soil, against Argentina no less than in a Maracaná starved of fans, due to the pandemic.

In this context, Ednaldo Rodrigues entered the scene, who was one of the vice presidents of the entity, but above all a historical leader who became president of the entity. Bahia Football Federation, with two re-elections. When he replaced Cabloco at the helm of CBF, he became one too the first person of color to hold the office.

By just two votes he was not elected unanimously when the Brazilian football leadership decided that he should stop being interim and become president. official for a period of four years. Under his presidency, the green yellow It failed in Qatar 2022, the World Cup won by Argentina. If the institution and the national team were in the same boat, it increasingly resembled the Titanic.

However, despite his support in football, earlier this month Justice Court of Rio de Janeiro fired Rodrigues for alleged “administrative irregularities”. Instead José Perdizpresident of the Superior Court of Sports Justice, was appointed intervener.

What is contested is the legitimacy of the agreement signed between the CBF and the Rio de Janeiro Public Prosecutor’s Office in March 2022, when Rodrigues ceased to be interim and was confirmed in office. This document bears the signature of the leader, who – according to the Justice’s point of view – allowed him to occupy the position beyond the interim period.

If something was missing in Brazilian football it was the intervention of FIFA, which, faced with the interference of ordinary courts, activates a mechanism that can result in an intervention with a possible sporting sanction: the feared exclusion of the national team and clubs from official competitions.

Football is internally regulated, it does not allow third parties mediate or get involved in its structure. It happens in Brazil and in any country whose football is part of the FIFA structure. Most federation statutes have similar wording: the club that joins enters the orbit of football.

“Clubs, leagues and groups affiliated with the AFA will make decisions on matters relating to their membership status independently of external entities,” the Argentine statute states, on a case-by-case basis.

Concerning the same idea, both Conmebol and FIFA sent a letter to the intervener Perdiz, indicating that “any violation” of this principle “may lead to sanctions, including suspension” of the Brazilian confederation from FIFA. In the letter he announced that a joint mission would arrive in Brazil to assess the situation and find a solution to the problem. That is, a normalizing commission like the one that operated in the AFA between 2015 and 2016.

“As established by the Brazilian Justice, with a decision confirmed in all cases, (…) I must call the elections within the established deadline, with the required transparency and integrity,” Perdiz said in a statement published by the Agency EFE and with those who respond to FIFA’s letter.

The butterfly effect of the sexual humiliation of some CBF employees by the Cabloco is a fact that puts the national team and the entire structure of the Brazilian confederation in check. For the next chapter we will have to wait until 2024, as well as the confirmation of the new coach who will be in charge of qualifying for the next World Cup, which is in doubt for Brazil due to administrative and footballing issues. Or entirely influenced by chaos theory.