Pele continued his long-running feud with Ricardo Teixeira when he was unveiled on Friday as the face of Brazil’s 2014 World Cup after the Brazilian soccer federation chief had snubbed him ahead yesterday’s draw for the qualifying competition.
Teixeira did not invite Pele to the draw, the first major milestone on the way to the World Cup finals, but Pele was to be there anyway after Brazil President Dilma Rousseff appointed him as the country’s international World Cup ambassador this week.
“You only go to a party if you are invited. If I wasn’t invited, it’s logical I wouldn’t go. [Teixeira] is president of the federation ... If he doesn’t invite me, I don’t go,” Pele said.
“Unfortunately people say more than they know,” Pele added. “There’s always some confusion or misunderstanding when he [Teixeira] replies or gives an interview. I hope from now on we can clear everything up and we can work properly for the World Cup.”
FIFA and the local organizing committee, which Teixeira also heads, issued a statement saying they were pleased with Pele’s new role after his news conference at the Museum of Modern Art, but contradicted his comments about not being invited.
“Because of his importance in the history of football, he was called in April to be not only a guest of honor, but mainly to accompany FIFA general-secretary Jerome Valcke on stage during the ceremony,” the statement said. “However, Pele responded to the invitation, by e-mail, saying he had other commitments on that date. The event is now complete and gains even more in importance.”
The animosity between Pele, widely regarded as the world’s greatest player, and Teixeira has its roots in the early 1990s when Pele was critical of Teixeira’s then father-in-law Joao Havelange, president of FIFA at the time.
Havelange snubbed Pele by not inviting him when the draw for the 1994 World Cup finals was made in Las Vegas in late 1993, but with history appearing to repeat itself current FIFA head Sepp Blatter has stepped in as a possible peacemaker.
Earlier on Friday, Blatter said he was planning to meet the outspoken Teixeira, president of the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF), over remarks he had made against England and for snubbing Pele.
Teixeira, 64, a FIFA executive committee member who has been surrounded by controversy for years, recently accused the English of being “pirates” saying they “could go to hell.”
On Friday he refused to talk to English journalists, calling them “corrupt” after a media scuffle involving his entourage following a news conference.
Blatter told reporters that Teixeira’s criticism of England was not good for FIFA’s image.
Teixeira is upset with the English after David Triesman, the former head of the English FA, accused him in a Parliamentary inquiry of asking for a bribe in return for his vote for England’s bid to stage the 2018 World Cup finals.
A subsequent inquiry found no evidence for Triesman’s allegation and FIFA cleared him of any wrongdoing.
However, Teixeira, in an interview with a Brazilian magazine last week, said he would make the lives of the English FA and the English media very difficult during the World Cup, if England qualified.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but