On the eve of the election for the next president of the CBF (Brazilian Football Confederation), president Ednaldo Rodrigues fired the entity’s communications director, Rodrigo Paiva, for just cause.
Paiva is a friend of former player Ronaldo Fenômeno, who has already announced his desire to run for president. According to the statute, Rodrigues has until April next year to call the election.
Rodrigues was quite bothered by the fact that Paiva was accompanying Ronaldo on some commitments, the former player’s objective being to announce his interest in the presidency of the CBF.
The last straw was Paiva’s presence alongside Ronaldo at a lunch with Globo’s top brass, as revealed by journalist Juca Kfouri.
Paiva was on vacation until January 8th, but Rodrigues announced his departure on Wednesday (18th). The president would have used the justification that Paiva committed sexual harassment against a CBF employee.
Paiva denies that he committed any type of harassment.
“Since Ronaldo Nazário — with whom I have a beautiful history of friendship and achievements — officially launched his candidacy for the presidency of the CBF, I have been suffering a series of frustrated attempts at systematic attacks that aim to tarnish my reputation as a man and as a professional,” he stated Paiva, through a note sent to the reporter.
When contacted, the CBF press office says it does not comment on administrative decisions.
In August this year, judge Leonardo Almeida Cavalcanti, of the Regional Labor Court of the 1st Region, ordered the CBF (Brazilian Football Confederation) to compensate former director Luísa Xavier Rosa in R$60,000, who accuses the entity of harassment moral and sexual.
The process is carried out in secrecy.
In the action, she says that harassing people, regardless of the nature of the harassment, would be a general rule of conduct for the CBF led by Ednaldo Rodrigues.)
The former director also states that the harassment was known and practiced by several members of the entity’s leadership.
Rosa was the first female director in the entity’s history. She was announced for the position with pomp by the president of the CBF, Ednaldo Rodrigues, in April 2022, as proof of her commitment to diversity.
Responsible for supervising the physical works at the headquarters and external facilities, she only worked in the role for 15 months.
In the process, she claims to have been disallowed by the president of the CBF in hiring companies for works and claims that her powers were emptied, which led to depression.
He also reports episodes of sexual harassment and states that he heard misogynistic and inconvenient comments, such as the hiring of prostitutes to serve CBF guests at events—but without naming the authors of such comments.
Rosa mentioned Rodrigo Paiva, director of Communications, by name in the case, who invited her to non-professional meetings in bars and cafes in Leblon. He also referred to her as “angel” and “beautiful”.
In the documents, she wrote that she had Paiva as a friend, “but she did not notice, at the time, that the relationship with him was nothing more than another episode of harassment.”
The report was unable to contact Rosa.
In a statement, Paiva also stated that he was never summoned by the Court and that he is not part of the action filed by Rosa.
“Specifically regarding the action of former director Luisa Xavier against the CBF, I would like to clarify that I have no place to speak on the topic in question, since I am not and have never been part of the process itself, or any other of this nature “, says the note.
“Never in my entire life have I been the target of an investigation of any kind, much less a defendant or convicted in any process of any nature”, Paiva continued.
