Career
Being a religious man, his pre-match ritual was to raise his two football cards (yellow and red), both personalized with the inscription Deus é Fiel, which means God is Faithful, and pray in the center of the pitch. He became notorious for his involvement in a match-fixing scandal. When he was younger, he tried to become a football player, and made a test at São José, but never signed a contract.
In 1991, he became a referee.
Three years later, he refereed his first official match, a Campeonato Paulista game. He became an international referee in 2000, one year after he was appointed by Armando Marques, who was the president of the Brazilian Football Confederation Refereeing Commission at the time.
He replaced referee Dacildo Mourão. In 2003, he was accused of submitting a fake high school graduation degree to Paulista Football Federation (FPF), which is a requirement for anyone who wants to be a referee in Brazil.
The accusation was never investigated by FPF. In 2005, he was accused of insulting Argentine players Sebá and Carlos Tevez during a match between São Paulo and Corinthians.
He was one of the main figures in the 2005 Brazilian football match-fixing scandal, where he received between R$10,000 and R$15,000 per fixed match. Eleven Brazilian National Championship matches refereed by him were annulled, and needed to be replayed. He was suspended on September 24, 2005, and was later was banned for life.
He also faced charges of fraud, conspiracy and crimes against the economy.
He confirmed that he committed those crimes, but stated that he only did so because he was R$40,000 in debt.
