José Maria Marin (born 6 May 1932) is a Brazilian

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

and former

sports administrator Sport management is the field of business dealing with sports and recreation. Sports management involves any combination of skills that correspond with planning, organizing, directing, controlling, budgeting, leading, or evaluating of any organiza ...

who was the President of the

Brazilian Football Confederation The Brazilian Football Confederation (, CBF) is the governing body of football in Brazil. It was founded on Monday, 8 June 1914, as , and renamed Confederação Brasileira de Desportos in 1916. The football confederation, as known today, sepa ...

(, ''CBF'') from March 2012 until April 2015. He had previously served as vice-governor and governor of

São Paulo state SAO or Sao may refer to: Places * Sao civilisation, in Middle Africa from 6th century BC to 16th century AD * Sao, a town in Boussé Department, Burkina Faso * Serb Autonomous Regions (''Srpska autonomna oblast'', SAO), during the breakup of ...

and is a former

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

player. Marin was arrested as part of the

2015 FIFA corruption case In 2015, United States federal prosecutors disclosed cases of corruption by officials and associates connected with the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the governing body of association football, futsal and beach so ...

and was subsequently jailed for four years.

Early life and football career

Marin was born in

São Paulo São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...

. His father was from Galicia,

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

, and helped to popularize

boxing Boxing is a combat sport and martial art. Taking place in a boxing ring, it involves two people – usually wearing protective equipment, such as boxing glove, protective gloves, hand wraps, and mouthguards – throwing Punch (combat), punch ...

in Brazil. He was part of the

squad between 1950, and 1952 where as a striker he scored five goals in the 20 games he played.

Political career

José Maria Marin was city councilor in 1960, state deputy in 1970, and from 1979 to 1982 he was vice-governor of São Paulo. He was

governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

from 14 May 1982 to 15 March 1983 as a replacement for Paulo Maluf. Marin joined the Brazilian Labor Party in 2007.

Brazilian Football Confederation

José Maria Marin was president of the Federação Paulista de Futebol from 1982 to 1988. He was vice-president of the

, representing the Southeastern Region, from 2008 to 2012. Due to health issues, Ricardo Teixeira withdrew from his position as president of the

, whereupon Marin was appointed as caretaker president of the confederation on 8 March 2012. After Teixeira resigned on 12 March 2012, Marin was appointed as the new president of the

and of the

2014 FIFA World Cup The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for list of men's national association football teams, men's national Association football, football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil fr ...

committee.

Controversies

On 25 January 2012, when Marin was vice president of CBF, during the medal ceremony of the

Copa São Paulo de Futebol Júnior The Copa São Paulo de Futebol Júnior (or ''São Paulo Youth Football Cup'', in English), also known as Copa São Paulo de Juniores (''São Paulo Youth Cup'') and Copinha (''Little Cup''), is a cup competition played by Brazilian under-20 assoc ...

, won by Corinthians, at Estádio do Pacaembu, he surreptitiously put in his pocket one of the gold medals that he was supposed to hand over Corinthians players, as a result of which, goalkeeper Matheus Caldeira was left without a medal. This act was broadcast live by

Rede Bandeirantes Rede Bandeirantes (, ''Bandeirantes Network''), or simply known as Band (), is a Brazilian free-to-air television network. It began broadcasting on May 13, 1967 on VHF channel 13 in São Paulo. Its founder was businessman :pt:João Saad, Jo ...

. The incident caused an uproar and was much talked about in social networks. Two months later, when he became president of CBF, Marin called the episode "a real joke". On 2 April 2013, the son of murdered Brazilian journalist Vladimir Herzog petitioned for Marin's removal from the CBF and FIFA because of the speeches Marin delivered while a congressional representative in 1975 that praised Sérgio Fleury, who was head of the Department of Political and Social Order (Departamento de Ordem Politica e Social) during Brazil's military dictatorship, and for criticizing Herzog in speeches. Fleury has been accused of involvement in torture. Herzog's 1975 death certificate was officially changed by court order from suicide to murder by torture in March 2013 after 37 years. On 27 May 2015, Marin was arrested for corruption charges in connection with the

. The indictment under which Marin was arrested names 14 people on charges including

racketeering Racketeering is a type of organized crime in which the perpetrators set up a coercion, coercive, fraud, fraudulent, extortionary, or otherwise illegal coordinated scheme or operation (a "racket") to repeatedly or consistently collect a profit. ...

wire fraud Mail fraud and wire fraud are terms used in the United States to describe the use of a physical (e.g., the U.S. Postal Service) or electronic (e.g., a phone, a telegram, a fax, or the Internet) mail system to defraud another, and are U.S. fede ...

, and

money laundering Money laundering is the process of illegally concealing the origin of money obtained from illicit activities (often known as dirty money) such as drug trafficking, sex work, terrorism, corruption, and embezzlement, and converting the funds i ...

conspiracy. In addition to senior soccer officials, the indictment also named sports-marketing executives from the United States and South America who are accused of paying more than $150 million in bribes and kickbacks in exchange for media deals associated with major soccer tournaments. Other soccer officials charged are Eduardo Li, Jeffrey Webb, Eugenio Figueredo, Jack Warner, Julio Rocha, Costas Takkas, Rafael Esquivel and Nicolás Leoz. Marin was subsequently banned by the

FIFA Ethics Committee The FIFA Ethics Committee is one of FIFA's three judicial bodies. It is organized in two chambers, the ''Investigatory Chamber'' and the ''Adjudicatory Chamber''. Its duties are regulated by several official documents, most importantly the ''FIFA ...

. In August 2018, Marin was sentenced to prison for four years. He was also fined $1.2 m and ordered to forfeit $3.34 m. On 30 March 2020, it was decided that Marin would be released early with the judge citing his: "advanced age, significantly deteriorating health, elevated risk of dire health consequences due to the current COVID-19 outbreak, status as a non-violent offender, and service of 80% of his original sentence".

In popular culture

Chilean actor

Alejandro Trejo Alejandro Edmundo Trejo Zapata (born 8 August 1959) is a Chilean theater, television, and voice actor. He is best known for 2001's '' A Cab for Three'', for which he received Best Actor awards at the Cinemanila and Gramado film festivals. Biog ...

portrayed Marin in the 2020

Amazon Prime Video Amazon Prime Video, known simply as Prime Video, is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming television service owned by Amazon. The service primarily distributes films and television series produced or co-produced by ...

original series '' El Presidente''.

References

, - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Marin, Jose Maria 1932 births Living people Brazilian men's footballers Governors of São Paulo (state) Football people in Brazil Men's association football forwards Presidents of the Brazilian Football Confederation São Paulo FC players Sportspeople from São Paulo Brazilian people of Spanish descent Party of Popular Representation politicians National Renewal Alliance politicians Democratic Social Party politicians Liberal Front Party (Brazil) politicians Social Christian Party (Brazil) politicians Brazilian Labour Party (1981) politicians FIFA officials Recipients of the Grand Cross of the Order of Ipiranga Social Democratic Party (Brazil, 2011) politicians 20th-century Brazilian sportsmen Municipal Chamber of São Paulo councillors