Amsterdam, July 15, 2026 – Brazilian football has never been short of controversy, but the latest one doesn’t involve a coach, a referee, or a scandal-plagued president. It involves a sitting justice of the Supremo Tribunal Federal (STF) — Brazil’s Supreme Court — and questions about how close his family ties have grown to the very organization that runs the Seleção.
The Institute, the Son, and the Contract
At the center of the story is Gilmar Mendes, one of the most powerful and long-serving justices on Brazil’s highest court. Decades ago, he founded the Instituto Brasileiro de Ensino, Desenvolvimento e Pesquisa (IDP), an educational institution that has since grown into a significant player in Brazilian legal and academic circles. Today, the IDP is run by his son, Francisco “Chico” Schertel Mendes.
Francisco “Chico” Schertel Mendes
In August 2023, the IDP signed a ten-year agreement with CBF Academy, the educational arm of the Confederação Brasileira de Futebol. Under the deal, the IDP took over management of CBF Academy’s course offerings — and, notably, kept 84% of the revenue generated, worth an estimated R$9.2 million, while the CBF retained just 16%.
On its own, a university institute partnering with a football confederation’s education arm isn’t remarkable. What has drawn scrutiny is what happened next.
A Case, Redistributed
Ednaldo Rodrigues
In 2022, then-CBF president Ednaldo Rodrigues was removed from office by a Rio de Janeiro state court over irregularities in his election. Rodrigues appealed to the Supreme Court. Under the court’s normal distribution rules, the case should have landed with justice André Mendonça, who had previously denied a similar request from a different party.
Instead, following an appeal filed by the PCdoB — the political party of CBF secretary-general Alcino Reis Rocha — the case was redistributed and, by the court’s random draw, fell to Gilmar Mendes. In January 2024, Mendes granted an injunction reinstating Ednaldo Rodrigues to the CBF presidency. He never declared himself conflicted or recused himself from the case, and when reporters raised the question directly, he denied any conflict of interest existed, characterizing the IDP’s relationship with the CBF as one where his institute was lending its prestige to the confederation, rather than benefiting from it.
Critics see the sequence differently: a justice adjudicating the fate of an organization his own institute has a lucrative, decade-long contract with, and whose son runs that same institute.
The Fallout
The story, first surfaced in detail by investigative outlets including revista Piauí, has since spread well beyond legal circles. Journalists have also noted that Francisco Schertel Mendes has built out a broader footprint in Brazilian football governance: he has served on FIFA’s Disciplinary Committee since May 2021 (nominated by the CBF, and reinstated to the role in 2025) and was elected vice-president of the Mato Grosso state football federation.
In August 2025, a formal request was filed with Brazil’s Procuradoria-Geral da República (PGR) — the federal prosecutor’s office — asking for an investigation into Gilmar Mendes over the arrangement. Federal senator Eduardo Girão has publicly argued that the CBF-IDP partnership compromises the justice’s impartiality and warrants serious scrutiny.
The story resurfaced with new intensity after Brazil’s elimination from the 2026 World Cup, when Mendes posted publicly in support of embattled head coach Carlo Ancelotti and paid tribute to Neymar. The post was flagged with a community fact-check note pointing out his and his son’s extensive ties to the CBF — a reminder, if any was needed, that in Brazil, the line between football, politics, and the judiciary is rarely as clean as fans might like.
What Happens Next
As of now, no formal disciplinary or criminal proceeding against Gilmar Mendes has been confirmed to have advanced beyond the request stage, and the justice maintains that no actual conflict exists. But the questions aren’t going away: about how a Supreme Court justice ended up presiding over the fate of an organization tied to his family’s business interests, about whether Brazil’s normal case-distribution safeguards functioned as intended, and about just how deep the reach of the IDP now extends into the machinery that runs Brazilian football.
For a country where the Seleção is practically a matter of state, that’s not a small question.
