Kia Joorabchian, part of Corinthians unsavoury MSI connection
All the stars point to a Carlos Tevez move to Corinthians. He wants to be closer to his daughters and the Brazilian club is familiar territory leading them to the championship in 2005. The most doubtful part is not how they could come up with £35m. As Tim Vickery points out Lula’s neo-liberal policies are benefiting the club with deep roots to the democratic movement which ended years of military rule. There is a different reason why this sounds so improbable.
Tevez’s transfer if it happens will bring back painful memories of the years following the 2005 season. His agent Kia Joorabchian, a former board member of MSI, the sports marketing giants who took over financial control of club was virtually on the lam as a Brazilian judge issued arrest warrants for him, Nojan Bedroud, and Boris Berezovsky, a Russian oligarch exiled in the UK, on money laundering charges. Berezovksy was reported to be MSI’s main funding source even as he continued to deny his association with Joorabchian and MSI.
The turmoil deepened further when it was discovered that Alberto Dualib, the Corinthians president was discovered to have received a huge payout for ceding control to MSI. The board in the pocket of MSI were bamboozled by the prospects of high priced Galacticos revolutionizing the club. It never happened and the club was relegated in 2007 and their assets frozen. The club severed ties with MSI thereafter following a fallout in relations with investors and fans focusing their frustrations around the company’s interference in transfers. The club was left victimized by damaging third party transactions when it was discovered it only owned five players.
So why risk Tevez and his unsavoury association with an agent, part of an ethos that ushered in Corinthians darkest hour? It’s not as if Tevez himself is less of a risk blowing hot and cold with every club he’s been so far including fleeing from Corinthians because he feared for his life. If they have £35m to blow then why not go for some of the higher priced Brazilians in the European leagues. Surely there are players matching in talent with less happy feet than Tevez.