Globo produces documentary about the whistle mafia, the biggest scandal in Brazilian football

Globo and the production company Feel The Match, owned by Bruno Maia, former vice-president of marketing at Vasco, are producing a documentary about the “Máfia do Apito”. The case is still considered the biggest arbitration and match-fixing scandal in Brazilian football.

The production is in the phase of choosing interviewees. The premiere is scheduled for next year, when it will be 20 years since the story came to light.

An original project by Feel The Match, the project is co-produced by Globo and SporTV through the media conglomerate’s sports documentaries nucleus. Join Comunicação also participates in the process as an associated producer.

“Mafia do Apito” was the name given to a series of complaints that showed that games in the Brazilian Championship in series A and B had been manipulated by referees Edilson Pereira de Carvalho and Paulo José Danelon. A group of investors had negotiated with Carvalho, then a member of FIFA’s referee board, to guarantee results he had bet on on websites.

The participation of a second referee in the scheme, Paulo José Danelon, was discovered during the investigations. After investigations, both were banned from football and, later, denounced by the Public Ministry for embezzlement, gang formation and ideological falsehood.

The criminal action was suspended in 2007 by order of judge Fernando Miranda, from the TJ-SP (Court of Justice of São Paulo). In August 2009, the same magistrate and two other colleagues ordered the “lockdown” of the criminal case, understanding that the facts discovered did not prove the crime of embezzlement.

The decision ended, in the criminal area, the investigation into the alleged gang. In the field of sport, the eleven games refereed by Edílson in the 2005 Brasileirão ended up annulled by the STJD (Superior Court of Sports Justice). Luís Zveiter, then president of the Court, claimed that the annulment occurred to completely remove the referee’s participation in the Brasileirão, and that his objective was to restore some of the prestige of the dispute.

The champion that year was Corinthians, who finished three points ahead of 2nd place, Internacional. If the original results of the games had been maintained, Internacional could have been champions, something that makes Rio Grande do Sul fans complain to this day.