The pivot of the match-fixing scheme known as the Whistle Mafia, the former referee Edilson Pereira de Carvalho He said he was a Corinthians fan, agreed with the ban that took him away from football in 2005 and revealed that he had thought about suicide three times.
“I’ve thought about doing something stupid. Today I think: ‘Thank God I didn’t do that’. I suffered a lot for five years”, declared Edílson Pereira de Carvalho, in an interview with the Cartoloucos channel on YouTube.
Edílson welcomed Cartolouco into his home and told him everything about the Whistle Mafia, which resulted in him being arrested for five days and banned from football. “Two-person mafia? That title started off wrong, but that’s okay,” he said.
The former referee opined that the games canceled in 2005 should not have been redone. “Corinthians won both games due to Corinthians’ exclusive responsibility. The idiot in the story was Edílson Pereira de Carvalho, a piece of shit in history. The championship, I think, should have ended there,” he said. “My father was a Corinthians fan, as was my mother. I refereed dozens of times in the youth, junior and professional teams, and I never influenced them.”
Edílson described his ban from football as fair. “Completely fair. If you make a mistake, you have to pay. It makes no sense for a referee to participate in a scheme and continue to referee. He has to be banned, he’s going to do this every game. I did this shit and it’s valid for life.”
The former referee recalled that he was locked up at home and struggled to find a job. “I was completely locked up at home. And I had to continue supporting my wife and daughter. I don’t go where there are people. What I really suffered from, starting in 2008, was looking for a job. ‘Leave me alone, please.’ Let me live. Or is everyone a saint? Every fan and every human being is a saint… I’m the only one who has made mistakes in this life.”
He said he still watches football, but stopped following the sport after the incident. “I stopped watching football in 2005, when the incident happened. It was like a crowd, any mistake would be shouted at by Edílson. I was crying, and my daughter asked ‘why are they shouting your name’. I was so embarrassed about it. Some things persist. And in my case, in football, they persist to this day. I gambled away everything in exchange for money.”
What else did he say:
It’s easy to manipulate a match. “You can do it even before the game. You get a famous player, a slump-faller, you come in and give him a yellow card, the next time he goes to throw himself and you give him a red card. And you can give a penalty from a corner. It’s easy to manipulate the game on the field. The referee manipulates it whenever he wants, and especially a referee who has a name. Then the player respects him much more.”
I would take back the penalty that Marcos saved from Marcelinho in 2000 (Palmeiras x Corinthians, for the Libertadores). “Today I would take back that penalty, and not because I’m a Corinthians fan. In the past, you didn’t have the habit of taking back penalties. [por adiantar]”.
I would referee with my eyes closed if there was VAR back then. “In my time, if there was VAR, I would referee with my eyes closed. All that called me was the VAR. I would go after the VAR. Because if I don’t give a penalty, and the VAR called me, I already know that I’ll come back and it’s a penalty. I’m not going against the VAR. I’m going to play the VAR against everyone. The offside then, easier for the assistant. ‘I’m going to raise them all'”.
Regret that lasts to this day. “I regretted it back then. I’m going to lose a FIFA badge, I’m going to lose my career, which was three years away. [para aposentar]. I could be a commentator. At least I would work, I wouldn’t suffer.”
Tinga’s penalty in 2005 in a game refereed by Márcio Rezende. “Simple. If this game had been at Beira-Rio, Márcio would have given a penalty. If I had been refereeing, a penalty and expulsion.”
Grafite saving Corinthians from relegation in the 2004 Paulistão. “There was a game in 2004, Corinthians was about to be relegated, against Portuguesa, in Pacaembu, and they lost. And I was the one refereeing. But who saved Corinthians later? Grafite, from São Paulo, in the game in São Caetano [2 a 1 contra o Juventus, resultado que salvou o Timão]’.
How the Mafia scheme began. “In 2004, someone from Piracicaba called me [Nagib Fayad, o Gibão]. First, I was supposed to referee an amateur match. The coach wanted us to win and they would give us R$5,000. Then, in 2005, after so much insistence, I started to pick something I didn’t want to do. It was a game in Argentina, between Banfield and Alianza Lima, from Peru, in the first or second round of the Libertadores. In my head, I wasn’t going to do it. He bet me, I don’t know how much, and he was going to give me R$10,000. ‘Which one do you choose, Edilson? Banfield, a draw or Alianza?’ I said: ‘I don’t know how one or the other is doing. I’m going to choose the home team, obviously’. I ended up not doing anything, and Banfield won. ‘I didn’t influence it, I’m fine with myself’.”
The second game of the scheme. “The next day, ‘Gibão’ shows up there with the money. Then I thought: ‘I’m not going to do it. [influenciar] in the next game and I’ll earn more money, but I’ll ask for 20 thousand. Guarani x Corinthians for the Paulistão. And Corinthians with that great team, with Tévez, Mascherano… There was no need for a referee to help Corinthians. The other day, he met me at the airport and gave me R$20 thousand. ‘I didn’t do it there in Argentina, and now I earn R$20 thousand without doing anything’. And that was driving me crazy about the money.”
Manipulation in the Brazilian Championship and the discovery of the scheme. “Then the Brazilian Championship comes and they say I refereed all eleven games. I didn’t referee all 11. Of those 11, the only one I refereed was Vasco da Gama x Figueirense. Psychologically, I was very involved in the conversation with him, and I said that I would even leave in a police van, but that I would give Vasco da Gama. And in an interpretive play, in a foul inside the area… If it had been my style of refereeing, I wouldn’t have given the penalty. And I did. Then Romário went and scored the goal. It was only in that game that I changed something in the game.”
He sold all the shirts he traded with players. “More than 700 shirts. Unemployed, someone came to my house… ‘Why don’t you sell that?’ I sold them for 800, 1,000, any shirt. I created a website with my name on it, and I sold the shirts like hotcakes.”
He thought he was a great referee. “I thought I was a very good referee. ‘If you ask for a card, you’ll get one, and I’ll decide whether to give it to the person who hit you.’ I’m the one in charge here! They [jogadores] They already arrived wanting to swallow you. Today, players arrive in five, six… They complain about the refereeing and the refereeing does nothing. Today the referees lack personality.”
What do you like to do most today? “What I like most is, before work, to walk about 12, 13km. I go for a little run, I drink my wine, a bottle in about three days.”
WHAT WAS THE WHISTLE MAFIA
The Apito Mafia scheme was discovered in 2005 by journalist André Rizek and published by Veja magazine.
Former referees Edílson Pereira de Carvalho and Paulo José Danelon received money to manipulate results, helping criminals to profit from million-dollar bets.
The day after the complaint, Edílson was arrested, along with businessman Nagib Fayad, “Gibão”, identified as the mentor of the Apito Mafia.
TURNAROUND IN THE 2005 BRAZILIAN CHAMPIONSHIP
According to the investigations, the 11 games refereed by Edilson in the championship were manipulated and, by decision of the Sports Court, ended up being annulled and played again.
Corinthians were the champions, three points ahead of Internacional, who were the leaders before the matches were cancelled. Timão were third.
Corinthians had been defeated in the two canceled games, both classics against rivals: 4-2 against Santos and 3-2 against São Paulo. In the ‘new games’, the black and white team added four points: 3-2 over Santos and a 1-1 draw with São Paulo.
The turnaround angered the Colorado fans. If the original scores had been maintained, the Gauchos would have won the Brazilian Championship with one more point than the São Paulo team.
Edílson was banned from football and became a defendant in a criminal action, as were Fayad and four other members of the mafia.