The Brazilian Football Federation (CBF) "denied any irregularity with contracts made by the body" with Cayman Islands-based company ISE over the transmission rights of the national team's friendly matches, calling the "insinuations 'malicious,'" according to Jamil Chade of ESTADÃO. In a statement, the CBF said, "In the football branch if one team does not present itself as the team of value toward a friendly it can be demoted. It is natural and comprehensible that a contract of a football game with a large team becomes defined based on its stars. ... It is important to say that this clause that has been so vaunted would never be invoked or carried out from the beginning of the agreement." The CBF also stated that it "maintained its bank accounts" in Brazil and not in the Cayman Islands, as the agreement alluded. CBF President Marco Polo Del Nero stated on Friday that he "did not maintain contact with anyone from ISE" (ESTADÃO, 5/17).
LIST OF DEMANDS: ESTADÃO reported after it was revealed that the CBF "'sold' the friendlies rights" to ISE until '22, Brazilian football player movement Bom Senso "demanded more transparency" from the governing body. Former footballer and Bom Senso member Alexsandro de Souza "asked for the democratization of the CBF." De Souza: "I feel absolutely terrible, disgusted. It's another sign of what we (Bom Senso) have asked for: transparency. ... Football is the patrimony of the Brazilian people and it cannot be used the way it has been, for so long as a private society like the CBF" (ESTADÃO, 5/17).
