Behind the scenes: Textor from Botafogo takes a position of ignoring Palmeiras' remark and reiterates that he did not accuse the club | com.botafogo

See Palmeiras' note:

“Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras informs that it will take all applicable legal measures – in civil, criminal and sporting fields – against the owner of SAF do Botafogo, John Textor, until he responds to the irresponsible and frivolous statements in which he has repeatedly been implicated.” Name of the current two-time Brazilian champion.”

But the North American will not respond to the Sao Paulo team. On the contrary: internally, the position would be to practically ignore it. If a procedural notice arrives, the executive will take a position through lawyers.

Internally, the latest statements were already expected to spark discontent in Palmeiras. However, the owner of the Botafogo Football Club did not seek out president Leila Pereira or any other representative of the Sao Paulo club to talk about the matter.

This position is based, in Textor's opinion, on the fact that Palmeiras has not been accused of participating in the alleged manipulations. In contact with geRepresentatives of the businessman spoke about the Palmeiras memorandum:

The public should be reminded to review the video published on his personal website (John Textor), in which he explains that there is no direct accusation against Palmeiras. There is no case that can be discussed in the press, as all accused parties are subject to the secrecy of the operation and their identities must remain secret, revealed only by Brazilian forces and federal prosecutors.

Among several topics, Textor stated that he had received the recording from an “employee of the Brazilian Confederation” and that the game in question was a “secondary division.” Speaking about the complaint, the North American said that when he went to provide evidence to the responsible authorities, he came across an investigation into the manipulation of the Palmeiras 4 x 0 Fortaleza match, for the benefit of the 2022 Brazilian Cup. (See video below) – The Sao Paulo team entered the field already champions of Brazil.

– People talk about corruption all the time and put players in the middle because it's easier. First, someone was paid to get a yellow card, and that's not even illegal. People find out, and they apologize. At the time of this recording, I was in government hands and had a tampering report, also prepared. I think it has been submitted and we have already submitted evidence of that to the court. The match-fixing report relates to a match that ended in 2022, which was the Palmeiras match. It appears that Palmeiras was not involved. It was Palmeiras against Fortaleza. This proof was sent to the Brazilian Football Confederation, I do not know who received the proof at the Brazilian Football Confederation, and I do not claim that it was received by the Brazilian Football Confederation. I wasn't involved. I have evidence of match-fixing and now we are analyzing the years prior to Botafogo's involvement. Pranksters talk about us crying…do I look like I'm crying? I do my best to help. This company was here before us, and was analyzing the games that were before us. Bookmakers lose money by fixing matches, so why would they hire them? They can't fix it, so they don't want to lose money. I suspect companies like this exist because they want to control the odds, the value of guesses, to help with the risk in the game. A team with constant manipulation, and I'm not talking about Palmeiras, but I'm talking about the concept… If there is a team that has a lot of betting activity, a lot of strange things, these guys know it. They don't go into journalism, they run businesses or try to run businesses. This is what our evidence indicates.

On that occasion, Alverde's team entered the field as national champions due to a host of pre-match results. At Allianz Park, Rooney scored two goals, while Dodo and Endrik completed the scoring.

– The people we are pursuing are not Palmeiras players. There are no Palmeiras players involved in match-fixing in our research on Palmeiras games. There is, as far as we know, no employee in the organization’s leadership, neither the coach nor anyone from Palmeiras that we believe is involved in fixing the Palmeiras match. “This is a fight for the soul of our sport and we have to be together,” he said.

Watch: All about Botafogo On GE, on Globo and on Sportif