PSDB uses CPI as a smokescreen to investigate the World Cup.

Senator Mário Couto (PSDB-PA) managed to gather 33 signatures to create a Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPI) into the Brazilian Football Confederation and its relations with local federations; however, Senator Álvaro Dias (PSDB-PR) has already warned that the real objective is to investigate the expenses in the construction of the 2014 World Cup stadiums; on the eve of the World Cup, and in a country with the memory still fresh of the large protests of the Confederations Cup, the cocktail is explosive.

October 31, 2013, 09:36 PMUpdated May 27, 2019, 08:53 AM

Senator Mário Couto (PSDB-PA) managed to gather 33 signatures to create a Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPI) into the Brazilian Football Confederation and its relations with local federations; however, Senator Álvaro Dias (PSDB-PR) has already warned that the real objective is to investigate the expenses in the construction of the 2014 World Cup stadiums; on the eve of the World Cup, and in a country with the memory still fresh of the large protests of the Confederations Cup, the situation is explosive (Photo: Leonardo Attuch).

247 - The government has another bomb to defuse in Congress in the coming days: the CPI (Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry) on the Brazilian Football Confederation, which is actually just a smokescreen for opposition parliamentarians to investigate spending on the construction of the 2014 World Cup stadiums, on the eve of the World Cup.

The signatures were collected by Senator Mário Couto (PSDB-PA). So far there are 33, six more than necessary, and the request will be read by Friday by the president of the House, Renan Calheiros (PMDB-AL), if the government does not manage to withdraw some signatures. According to Couto, it is necessary to investigate the relations between the CBF (Brazilian Football Confederation) and the regional federation, alleging that the same power structures have been maintained for several years.

However, Senator Álvaro Dias confided that the real objective is different: to investigate the cost of the World Cup stadiums, which would provide ammunition for those who intend to organize large protests in 2014, similar to those that occurred during the Confederations Cup. "To conduct a CPI (Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry) into the CBF (Brazilian Football Confederation) without thoroughly examining the stadiums would be, at the very least, contradictory," says the senator from Paraná.

Before Mário Couto, another PSDB parliamentarian, Deputy Izalci Lucas (PSDB-DF), also tried to create a CPI (Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry) for the World Cup.