"In Paulista and Gaúcho championships, the matches reported are in the classification phase. The games are specific, although they are criminally relevant, they did not affect the competition in a generalized way, nor the result of who should or should not be champion," he revealed.
Cesconetto also stated that the cases happened in two matches of each competition, and, in one of Sao Paulo, the proposal happened, but the athlete sought did not accept to participate.
According to the prosecutor, the focus of the investigations is on games from the second half of 2022 until now. For now, there are no indications of the participation of managers and bookmakers in the manipulation of results.
“There are no indications of the participation of managers and bookmakers. Paulista and Gaúcho tournaments have already denounced. There are indications of manipulation in other states in 2023. There are materials referring to athletes, a special one that plays in Major League Soccer (United States league). Our focus is from 2022 onwards,” explained Cesconetto.
Finally, he revealed the intention of the fraudsters, explaining why the desire is not to manipulate the result of the match itself, but to look for minor events within the game, such as penalties, cards, among others.
“The gamblers did not act in isolation. A rigged game would not bring profit to have the return on that bet. So they try to make multiple bets with more players to increase their profit. And thus match bets in that round to increase the profit, which reaches R$ 1 million, R$ 2 million profit for the bettors,” he explained.
For now, Operation Maximum Penalty is ongoing. The first trials of the first phase took place last Monday (29), with the banning of Romário and the suspension of Gabriel Domingos, former Vila-Nova athletes. This Thursday (1), the STJD will judge eight players caught in the investigations of the second phase of the operation.
In the opinion of the Attorney General of the Public Ministry of Goiás, Cyro Terra Peres, who investigates fraud in betting on football matches, it is also necessary to create mechanisms for clubs, federations and confederations to act in order to prevent these schemes. He defends the creation of channels for receiving complaints, for example, so that they are later forwarded to official investigative bodies.
The CPI rapporteur, Deputy Felipe Carreras (PSB-PE) stated that the Legislature was challenged not only to join efforts with the Public Ministry of Goiás and other institutions to clear up fraud in football, but also to find ways to prevent future crimes. The parliamentarian highlighted the importance of football in Brazilian culture and said that fraud "puts in check the credibility of current championships and those that have existed."
“This CPI will not end in pizza, you can write and collect. It will give punitive results, to set an example, and also in an educational way, to have legislation that will protect perhaps one of the greatest assets of the Brazilian people, which is football,” assured Carreras.
Investigators from Goiás reinforced that, so far, investigations are restricted to isolated cases and do not compromise football championships.
Cyro Terra was adamant when saying that there is no evidence of participation of club directors or judges in fraudulent schemes.
Bookmakers would also be victims of criminal organizations. Prosecutor Fernando Cesconetto explained that they detected bets worth R$ 500 thousand (US$ 100k) in which bettors would receive more than R$ 2 million (US$ 400k) in a round of games, and who would pay the difference would be the bookmakers, who, therefore, would be harmed with the scheme.
Cesconetto explained that the Goiano MP's investigations are limited to games that took place from the second half of last year. The body has already denounced 13 members of the criminal organization and 24 athletes. Match manipulations were detected in eight matches of the A series and five matches of the B series of the Brazilian championship in 2022. The gang also interfered in four games of the 2023 state championships.
The prosecutor, involved in investigating the manipulation scheme, agrees that the lack of regulation harms the action of investigative bodies.
He stresses that the resolution of fraud cannot be dependent on isolated initiatives, such as the attitude of a club president who reports, so that the information reaches the investigation bodies. The promoter also defends the creation of rules for clubs and federations to receive and forward complaints, with the establishment of responsibilities for each of these entities.
Voting postponed
For almost three and a half hours, several deputies questioned the way the investigations were conducted, without major issues having been further explored, making the public hearing tiresome in the opinion of even the meeting participants, who at the last minute decided to speed up the way in which the questions would be addressed, with no new fact remaining during the presentations.
After the end of the questions and answers phase by the guests, and due to the lateness of the hour and the start of the Agenda in Plenary, the president of the CPI closed the session before the end of the voting on the requirements. Only one summons was approved, that of Rodrigo Alves, president of the Brazilian Sports Betting Association (ABAESP).
The others will be analyzed and voted on next week, in the regimental session of the CPI.
Source: GMB
