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Associated Press

Brazilian congressman and former soccer great Romario has launched another attack against Fifa, calling president Sepp Blatter “a thief” and secretary general Jerome Valcke “a blackmailer”.
The comments from the former Brazil striker came at a congressional hearing promoted by a tourism and sports commission on Tuesday.
He continued his attack against Valcke with a post published on his website on Wednesday, saying the Fifa official wasn’t the “best person to do business” with Brazil ahead of the 2014 World Cup.
Romario also criticised the Brazilian soccer confederation, saying it is “corrupt”.
It was some of the harsher words yet used by Romario, who has been loudly criticising Fifa and local soccer officials since he took office in 2010.
“We can’t expect anything from Fifa, where we have a blackmailer called Valcke and a thief called Blatter,” Romario said while replying to a comment from a colleague who said Fifa should do more to make sure the World Cup would leave a legacy for Brazil. “They really don’t represent world football, much less Brazilian football.”
In his post, Romario said it was his role as a legislator to protect Brazil’s interests and make sure the people know more about the Fifa representative negotiating World Cup deals in Brazil.
“Brazilian authorities shouldn’t trust [Valcke] when signing any deal related to the World Cup,” Romario said. “It is with lack of trust that I see his presence in Brazil negotiating with the money of the Brazilian people. Rest assured that I’ll always keep an eye on what is being spent on the World Cup with public funds.”
Romario said he published the post in response to Valcke’s claim that the former Brazilian great had many times overstepped the boundaries of decency in his attacks. In an interview with Rio’s Extra on Sunday, Valcke said Romario was “anti-Fifa, anti-Jerome Valcke, anti-everything”.
“Fifa is open to talk to anyone, but I’m not going to go to Romario to ask him to speak with me,” Valcke was quoted as saying. “He has said so many negative things about me, I don’t see why I would go see him.”
Romario said his mistrust was in part linked to Fifa’s past problems with the now-defunct market agency ISL and the controversial replacement of the Mastercard sponsorship by Visa, a move spearheaded by Valcke.
Tuesday’s congressional hearing was aimed at discussing the financial situation of Brazilian clubs, and Romario took the opportunity to again criticise the local soccer federation, known as the CBF.
“CBF is a corrupt entity,” said the 47-year-old Romario, who won the 1994 World Cup with Brazil.


Romario launches scathing attack on Fifa

Romario believes Fifa is a corrupt organisation. Photo: AP

Sport

Football

Former Brazil great says Sepp Blatter and Jerome Valcke cannot be trusted in negotiations relating to next year's World Cup in his country


Brazilian congressman and former soccer great Romario has launched another attack against Fifa, calling president Sepp Blatter “a thief” and secretary general Jerome Valcke “a blackmailer”.
