Brazil Soccer President Caboclo Suspended Over Sexual Harassment Allegation

SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazilian soccer confederation president Rogério Caboclo was suspended on Sunday for 30 days after an accusation of sexual harassment against him emerged.

The CBF said in a statement it had received the ethics committee’s decision to “temporarily suspend” Caboclo. The suspension could be further extended as the committee investigates the accusation.

Caboclo denies any wrongdoing. He was formally accused by a former staffer on Friday, according to website Globo Esporte. On Saturday his lawyers said Caboclo would prove his innocence in a case they did not detail.

Caboclo has been an organizer of the troubled Copa America tournament that starts in Brazil on June 13.

For now, 82-year-old Antônio Carlos Nunes de Lima will take over as interim president. Nunes also held the position between 2017 and 2019 after Caboclo’s predecessor, Marco Polo Del Nero, was banned by FIFA for corruption.

The 48-year-old Caboclo was elected in 2019 for a four-year term and helped to persuade Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, to controversially hold the upcoming Copa America in Brazil after the tournament was pulled from Colombia and Argentina.

More than 470,000 Brazilians have died so far from the coronavirus and analysts expect another wave of the virus to hit Brazil by late June.