Romario demands CBF clearout

Brazilian footballing legend Romario on Wednesday stepped up criticism of Brazil’s Football Confederation (CBF), demanding a clear out at the top.

During a World Cup which saw the five-time champions crushed in the semifinals by eventual champion Germany, 1994 champion Romario said the game’s rulers were corrupt.Now a lawmaker, he repeated his distaste for then in a speech to fellow lawmakers.

“Marco Polo del Nero is to lead the CBF for the next four years. Do you think this man is capable of overseeing change? I am sure he isn’t,” said Romario.

Del Nero will take over next year from Jose Maria Marin, but Romario thinks he is more of the same at the age of 73 – even if he is a decade younger than the incumbent.

“This obscure and clandestine election needs to be annulled,” said Romario of last year’s naming of De Nero as the new man in charge.

“Brazilian football doesn’t deserve to be run by a gang which already showed itself incompetent... which rakes in money and does with it as it sees fit but not for the good of our football.”

And he warned without a CBF overhaul Brazil risked “a worse humiliation than the massacre at the Mineirao,” the Belo Horizonte stadium where Brazil fell to the Germans. 

The loss was Brazil’s worst ever in international football as well as their first conpetitive defeat in home since 1975.