The agent of the Paulista Football Federation, Reinaldo Carneiro Bastos, will run for the presidency of the Brazilian Football Confederation (). The manager announced the candidacy on Saturday (17). The CBF election is scheduled for May 25th. Interventor of the entity appointed by the court, after the removal of the then President Ednaldo Rodrigues, Fernando Sarney gave deadline until the 20th to register the plates in the elections.
“Encouraged and supported by federations and a large number of clubs from the Brazilian Championship series A and B, the president of the Paulista Football Federation, Reinaldo Carneiro Bastos, announces the launch of his candidacy for the presidency of CBF for the claim on May 25, 2025,” says a statement from the Paulista Football Federation released on social networks.
“Reconstructing the credibility of Brazilian football requires action and experience. We need a new CBF: open, modern ambitious and professional. The entity that manages the largest national passion and that makes more than $ 1 billion per year should be administered with transparency,” says another excerpt from the federation note.
Support from Libra and LFU Clubs
Ahead, since 2015, of the entity that generates football of São Paulo, Bastos has had work in the national confederation and was director of sports unions. Still on Saturday, club managers of Libra and LFU (Liga Forte União) gathered. Subsequently, they issued an official note, informing that 32 clubs declare support for the candidacy of Reinaldo Carneiro Bastos in the election of the CBF.
Learn more about him
The leader began his career in 1980, when he took office as soccer director of Esporte Clube Taubaté, where he was also president until 1988. At that time, he was already administrative director of the FPF and later became a member of the Paulista Football Arbitration Commission. Since then, he has devoted himself to the São Paulo Federation.
In 1996, Reinaldo Cardeiro Bastos was elected vice-president of the entity and, in 2015, assumed for the first time the post of president, in which he is in the third term. In the leadership of the FPF, he has defended topics such as the creation of an independent league, support for SAFs and changes in the Brazilian football calendar.
In April this year, he told the drowning podcast that the “will happen” league formation. For him, what is missing for this project to move forward is that clubs “listen more to each other” and leave feuds aside. “Exchange idea, talks about football, this is the first step. Football only changes if club wants,” said the president of the FPF.
According to the leader, the high amount of games in Brazil, an average of 70 to 75 is the big problem compared to Europe, which is much less, and this will be even more explicit with the Super World. The last time the FPF president took over the CBF was Marco Polo del Nero, elected in 2014 to replace José Maria Marín in a term that lasted until 2017, when he was banned from FIFA football on accusations involving bribery and corruption.
Other names
Samir Xaud, elected as president of the Roraimense Football Federation, has gained strength to take charge of the CBF in recent days. On Thursday, 19 presidents of state federations signed a manifesto defending the “renewal of Brazilian football”. A movement was started for a new election at the CBF, which was summoned by Fernando Sarney.
Understand the crisis in the CBF
The Rio de Janeiro Court of Justice (TJ-RJ) received a determination from the Supreme Federal Court (STF) to investigate the possibility of the signature of Antonio Carlos Nunes de Lima, Colonel Nunes, in the agreement that kept Ednaldo Rodrigues in charge of the CBF, approved by the Supreme Court in February, to have been counterfeit. The case surfaced at the last after an expertise was attached to the process.
Two requests for removal from Ednaldo Rodrigues were filed with the Direct Unconstitutionality Action (ADI) that judges the electoral process that led the agent to power in the Supreme Court. Minister Gilmar Mendes, rapporteur of the case at the Supreme Court, denied the requests.
Another point that questions the authenticity of the signature is the fact that Nunes, 86, informed the court suffering from a tumor in the brain and severe heart disease. Along with the expert, a report presented by Dr. Jorge Pagura, head of the CBF Medical Department, in which the professional indicates that Nunes suffers from cognitive deficit, especially after undergoing surgical intervention considered aggressive in 2023.
It is also cited both in the requests for removal and in requests for the presence of Ednaldo Rodrigues in the National Congress, the relationship of Minister Gilmar Mendes and the CBF. The minister, who received the lawsuit by draw. Possible conflict of interest is discussed, as the magistrate is founder of the Brazilian Institute of Teaching, Development and Research (IDP), which has a millionaire commercial partnership for CBF Academy formations.
Piauí magazine points to Ednaldo’s first dismissal in 2023, and TJ-RJ Judge Luiz Zveiter, father of Flávio Zveiter, who opposed Ednaldo. The parallel is also outlined between the departure president and Gilmar Mendes.
It was a report from Piauí itself that revealed authoritarian spending and practices in the management of the CBF, which placed Gilmar Mendes as the target of public criticism. The text published in the April issue of the magazine also spoke of suspicious payers to lawyers before court decisions in favor of the CBF. According to reporter Allan de Abreu, Gilmar Mendes was pressured and had to give in after parliamentarians threatened the installation of CPIs to investigate the confederation.
On May 6, the CBF spoke on the matter through an official note. The entity defended the legitimacy of the process. Now, at the same time, when it appeals in the Supreme Court to invalidate the river’s decision, the entity calls on new elections, for May 25, through intervener Fernando Sarney.
Amid the announcement of Carlo Ancelotti as new coach of the Brazilian team, a movement considered behind the scenes as a political victory of Ednaldo, the leader became the target of three complaints on the CBF Ethics Commission for different reasons
Among them are complaints of harassment within the entity, reckless management and the suspicion of fraud in the Rio court approved agreement. In addition, the removed president lost support from the federations, 52 days after reelection.
*With information from Estadão Content
Posted by Carolina Ferreira
