Senator Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG), president of the Senate, announced the senators appointed to join the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPI) on Sports Betting.
The CPI’s purpose is to investigate and clarify issues related to allegations and suspicions of match-fixing in Brazilian football.
The collegiate has scheduled its first session for Wednesday, where it will elect the president, vice-president and possibly the rapporteur.
The complaints being investigated by the CPI cover players, managers and betting companies. The creation of the CPI was announced on March 12.
.So far, the confirmed full members are:
Veneziano Vital do Rêgo (MDB-PB), Marcio Bittar (União-AC), Otto Alencar (PSD-BA), Angelo Coronel (PSD-BA), Jorge Kajuru (PSB-GO), Chico Rodrigues (PSB-RR), Romário (PL-RJ) e Eduardo Girão (Novo-CE).
Therefore, as substitutes, senators Giordano (MDB-SP), Efraim Filho (União-PB), Sérgio Petecão (PSD-AC) and Carlos Portinho (PL-RJ) were announced.
According to the president of the Senate, the Aliança bloc, made up of PP and Republicans, has not yet nominated its representatives for the commission.
Sports betting CPI: investigation and objectives
Senator Romário (PL-RJ) requested the CPI, which will have 11 full senators and 7 substitutes, lasting 180 days. In the application (RQS 158/2024), the senator emphasizes that sports betting represents a significant financial movement today.
In this way, the senator states that the suspicion of enticement of players and managers to manipulate results could compromise the integrity of the games.
“It is important to highlight that football is a vital economic activity for the country. Thus, it generates tens of thousands of jobs and drives significant income generation.
Therefore, it is the responsibility of the State to regulate and supervise its activities in favor of the public interest”, argues the senator.
Match-fixing
In a speech on March 6, Romário highlighted that in recent months there have been allegations of manipulation of results in Brazilian football games, possibly related to sports betting.
“After years of a completely deregulated market and the enormous amount of money moved by the sector, we can no longer ignore what is happening to the integrity of our sport, which is the number 1 and most popular sport on the planet, everyone’s passion, not just for Brazilians, but for all of us in the world who love football.”
Furthermore, the senator highlighted that the company SportRadar recently released a report that places 109 football games last year under suspicion of manipulation.
“This is absurd, at least in my view. This places us as the country with the highest number of matches analyzed under these conditions”, concluded Romário.
