The draw for the 2014 World cup finals are due to take place in four days time and the game’s governing body finds itself embroiled in another unwanted situation. A Sao Paulo prosecutor has opened an investigation into possible racism by FIFA.
The Sao Paulo state prosecutor has asked FIFA along with the company it hired to organise Friday’s draw to explain why two white-skinned actors were chosen to present the televised show instead of two black-skinned actors.
Apparently two Afro-Brazilians had been put forward as possible hosts but they were overlooked in favour of a light-skinned model called Fernanda Lima and her husband Rodrigo Hilbert, who is a TV presenter. News magazine Veja has reported this to be the case but it has not revealed how it gained information that this is the case.
Prosecutor Christiano Jorge Santos has claimed he asked Fifa, GEO Eventos, Veja and TV Globo, the broadcaster reported to put forward the well known soap opera actors Lazaro Ramos and Camila Pitanga, for more information about their choice.
“I opened the investigation due to the suspicion of a crime of racism on the part of Fifa, or by the company they selected to organise the show, GEO Eventos,” he told Reuters. adding that, if the report is true, he will seek to open criminal proceedings.
Santos has said that if the report is true then he will seek criminal proceedings. It is felt that Fernanda Lima and husband Rodrigo Hilbert do not represent Brazil’s racial mix, “and so the change was not justified,” Santos said.
