Brazilian Football Confederation boss Ricardo Teixeira, who has been dogged by allegations of corruption, has temporarily stepped down, citing health reasons, a Brazilian football official said Thursday.
Teixeira has been president of the CBF since 1989 and is also in charge of the organisation of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
"When you are in poor health, you need to take care of it. He asked to be relieved," Globo television's news portal G1 quoted Marco Polo Del Nero, the president of the Sao Paulo federation, as saying.
Del Nero did not say for how long Teixeira would relinquish the post, but said he would be replaced by his vice president, 79-year-old Jose Maria Marin, a former governor of Sao Paulo state.
Teixeira, 64, has faced accusations that he embezzled millions of dollars worth of bribes in the 1990s from the ISL Swiss company that later went bankrupt, and also that he diverted public funds from a friendly match played by Brazil in 2008.
The long-time chief of Brazilian football, whose mandate expires in 2015, has always maintained his innocence.
Source: AFP
