John Textor announces that he will have real-time monitoring of the refereeing in Botafogo x Flamengo and questions Raphael Claus’ lineup: ‘He shouldn’t be the referee’

Majority shareholder of SAF Botafogo, John Textor remains firm in its fight to combat corruption and match-fixing in football. In an interview with Botafogo TVthe American businessman reaffirmed that the club lost its Brazilian championship 2023 “off the field” and questioned the referee’s lineup Raphael Claus for this Sunday’s classic, against Flamengoat the Maracanãfor the fourth round of the Brasileirão-2024.

– Well, the past is the past. I know what happened last year. It was very clear. I saw a big problem. Everyone should see a big problem with the wrong marking of an offside line in Vasco x Palmeiras to actually tilt the plan. To compare two feet when one shoulder and one foot should. So I knew something was wrong on August 27th. I knew something was wrong on September 3rd, I think, at Flamengo and Botafogo. I knew something was wrong a week later with Atlético-MG and Diego Costa considered offside. I knew something was wrong in Palmeiras x São Paulo. After, actually. I knew something was wrong with Palmeiras x Bahia. I will always know that our club did everything possible to win on the field. And he lost off the field. Yes, there was an epic-scale collapse of our team, with our players at the end of the season. Try to go through what we went through, have a lead like that, taken with deducting your points and increasing the other team’s points. They’re going to say we’re crying, and that’s fine, but my goal is to make sure this doesn’t happen again, because it will. This will happen again – began Textor.

– In the middle of the Senate session, where I, as club president, am asking for the investigation of a rigged game and all participants in that game, including the referee, and the CBF shamelessly announces that Raphael Claus will be the referee for the next game between Botafogo and Flamengo. When he couldn’t be impartial. Nowhere in the world would a federation make this decision. So, if you don’t think this corruption can happen, again, ask yourself: “Is this how a federation should act?” The appearance of impropriety, the chance that Mr. Claus will be affected by the moment. He is, as we are, subject to an investigation, and he has to come in and be impartial. It’s not fair to Botafogo, it’s not fair to Flamengo. Flamengo are worried that Raphael might prove a point that he has nothing against Botafogo and give us an invalid penalty. He had hoped to God no. So he shouldn’t be the referee, have a week off, he’s probably under a lot of stress. Or he should officiate another game. This bad behavior will continue. The bad behavior I’m referring to is about Ednaldo (Rodrigues) and CBF. He has to start managing the business professionally. I didn’t say he was corrupt. I think he is not a good executive and I can’t believe that Brazil, with the great football we have, is stuck with this man who doesn’t even meet with the owner of a team. That’s depressing, right? I asked to send good emails. So my goal is for it not to happen again – he warned.

The Botafogo SAF shareholder’s artificial intelligence system will start monitoring arbitrations in real time this Sunday.

– Computer vision sees everything, every millisecond. So in this game, this weekend, we will install it for the first time and we can do it directly from the television broadcast. It’s better if we build camera systems for the arenas, but this game isn’t in our stadium. This will be the first time with real-time arbitration assessment, alerts and monitoring. This is the first time we will monitor manipulation during the game. It’s a level of transparency that is complementary to what you get from television. It doesn’t change the game, but now I get alerts on my phone when I watch my team in France. Weeks ago where we weren’t given a penalty, the alert popped up on my phone. It’s like an automated VAR. Later in the game we had a penalty awarded to us. Maybe we shouldn’t have that. There’s an alert too. We’ll have this real-time, whistle-by-whistle, computer vision approach in place for this week. And this should happen in all future games in Brazil. Corruption dies in the sunlight and that is my goal of this whole process – he guaranteed.

Textou spoke more about referee Raphael Claus.

– Claus is a strong and handsome man. So I have no problem with him. I have a problem with two invalid goals in Flamengo x Botafogo. I think he rushed the VAR, I couldn’t evaluate the VAR, I don’t think anyone could possibly say that Bruno Henrique wasn’t offside when the ball came from Wesley’s foot. VAR should simulate the perfect flag. This flag goes up when it leaves Wesley’s foot. He doesn’t wait for us to determine whether there was a goal or an own goal. Or something else. That was a problem. I’m very friendly with Flamengo people. I make this clear. If this goal doesn’t go in, would we win the game? Maybe, maybe not. There are 88 more minutes. Maybe they would be upset that they didn’t do that one and score three goals on us. But the fact is that there were two invalid goals in a 2-1 defeat, and there has to be responsibility for that. He gave an invalid penalty in the game that we are claiming was combined manipulation, Palmeiras x São Paulo, so he should explain himself. I think his casting with Mrs. (Daiane Caroline) Muniz dos Santos is curious. I think someone should explain this, 20 times out of 60 times they were rostered together and she was rostered with other referees no more than five times. So in an environment where there is a cyclone of credible allegations of fixing and there is a referee or combination of referee and VAR who is in several of these situations, just as I had to testify, he should testify. If there’s nothing wrong, there’s nothing wrong. People can’t hide from this, it’s a very important issue – he completed.