Shareholder of SAF do Botafogo, John Textor released a video on Saturday night (27/4) in which he talks about his relationship with CBF and with the arbitration. The North American businessman wants to have meetings with the responsible bodies and said he is in favor of referees.
Read the statements below about Anaf’s note, relationship with Ednaldo Rodrigues, president of the CBF, and arbitration:
– Well, they wrote a letter that had a number of other questions. They have their own problems with the CBF. In particular, I want to clarify my problems with the CBF. I have a lot of problems with them and I don’t have problems with them. What I want to say is that I’ve been here for two years, I couldn’t get a meeting with the president. I never called him corrupt. I think someone told him that I called him corrupt. At the hearing at Senate, again. Well, I don’t know how the translation went. I heard there were problems with that, but my words are my words and I clearly never accused him of corruption.
– I believe he is controlling an unresponsive organization. I think the fact that I could email him asking for a meeting, that I could get people to call him asking for meetings, that I’m the leader of one of the biggest clubs in Brazil currently and historically, and I can’t get a meeting with the president of the CBF while others manage to do so. This is a problem. I mean, I have major questions about him, about his professionalism.
– So, Anaf seems to have similar problems with the CBF’s treatment of some matters and the letter was mainly about that. They made no reference to the statements I made. I asked to meet with different bodies of referees. I’m pro-referees. I mean it. I joked about this before, that I had difficulty calling offsides when I was a referee, there are distractions in a fast game. So I have a deep appreciation. I am a capitalist. I think if you give them a salary that recognizes their importance to gaming, you know you’re going to attract the best talent. People who already have these jobs will make sure they are trained and ready, extremely focused on their work. Everyone will get better. Everyone should be paid more. But when you have a situation where the referee’s pay is a fraction of the lowest paid player on the field, that’s not right.
– But look, we have corruption, there are referees that we do not accuse of corruption who happen to referee games that we know are rigged and, in those games, they gave invalid penalties or they may have confirmed goals or they may have disallowed goals and they may have gone to other countries and officiated games where those games are under investigation for fixing. And when you have these people who keep showing up in these curious moments, everyone has to go through investigation. Everyone has to be responsible. So the fact that referees can be linked… I wish the refereeing associations would stop pointing at me and saying that I’m a problem for the referees because if one the two referees are doing an extraordinarily bad job. They should be responsible. If they are worse and they are doing it for a reason, well, they should be kicked out. And the strength of the arbitration association only grows stronger when everyone trusts the integrity of the referees. So pay them more, train them better. Rules change, interpretations change. I’m pro-arbitration, that’s my message to them and I’ll ask again: I would like a meeting with them.
▶️ Watch the video below:
Tags: John Textor finds strange wont meeting CBF talk arbitration associations proarbiters paid
