World Cup: Romario wants Brazil football chiefs “in prison”

“They will leave with the Cup and we will be left with our overbilled stadiums.”

A Brazil football legend, Romario, now a lawmaker in the Brazilian parliament, said on Thursday that his country’s sports chiefs should be jailed for the national team’s humiliating 7-1 World Cup defeat to Germany.

One day after the semi-final thrashing, Romario said the Brazilian Football Confederation, CBF, was plagued by corruption because clubs have elected the same leaders for years.

“Our football has been deteriorating for years. It is being dragged down by leaders who don’t even have the talent to juggle the ball,” Romario said in a letter posted on social media. “They stay in their luxury box seats, enjoying the millions that go into their accounts.”

The prolific striker said players and coaches were not to blame for the sport’s deterioration. He said CBF president, Jose Maria Marin, and his deputy, Marco Polo del Nero, who will take over in 2015, “should be in prison”.

Romario, a critic of the record $11 billion spent on the tournament, bemoaned the fact that President Dilma Rousseff will have to hand the World Cup trophy to a team other than Brazil in Sunday’s final.

“They will leave with the Cup and we will be left with our overbilled stadiums and no material legacy,” he said. “This will be the Cup of shame.”