Reports: Ronaldo to become 2014 World Cup chief organizer

Nov 29, 2011, 19:29 GMT

Rio de Janeiro - Former Brazil striker Ronaldo is to become president of the local organizing committee for the 2014 World Cup (COL), news reports said on Tuesday.

The reports said that Ronaldo, 35, has accepted an according offer from Brazilian football federation (CFB) chief Ricardo Teixeira, with the official announcement to be made on Thursday in Rio de Janeiro.

Up to now Teixeira is also head of the organizing committee.

The issue was first raised by Saturday's edition of the O Globo paper. Ronaldo said then he know nothing of it but also spoke of 'an honour' and that he would be 'thrilled to make some kind of contribution' to the World Cup preparations.

Ronaldo is the record World Cup scorer with 15 goals and won the biggest prize in football in 1994 and 2002. He ended his playing career this year at Brazilian club Corinthians.

If the reports are true, Ronaldo would be the third former top star to turn chief organizer for a World Cup, following Michel Platini (France, 1998) and Franz Beckenbauer (Germany, 2006).

Teixeira is under growing pressure for alleged corruption within the world governing body FIFA around the bankruptcy of a rights hiolder company. FIFA boss Joseph Blatter said recently he planned make public secret documents which reportedly may implicate Teixeira.

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