Soccer-Brazilian soccer boss to miss key FIFA meeting

RIO DE JANEIRO, July 18 (Reuters) - Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) president Marco Polo del Nero will miss Monday's key FIFA executive committee meeting because he needs to tackle domestic issues, the CBF said on Saturday. Del Nero also missed the FIFA Congress in May in Zurich, having left Switzerland shortly after his predecessor Jose Maria Marin was among seven people arrested at their hotel after being indicted on corruption charges in the United States. Marin and five others are still detained while Swiss authorities consider a request from the United States for their extradition. The seventh, former FIFA vice president Jeffrey Webb, has already been extradited and on Saturday pleaded not guilty in a U.S. federal court and was released on a $10 million bond. Del Nero has repeatedly denied any involvement in the bribery schemes laid out in the U.S. indictments. Del Nero said he needed to stay in Brazil to deal with proposed legislation affecting the country's football clubs, which he said had "unconstitutional elements." "I've told FIFA that I cannot take part in the meeting, as I had wished, because I need to keep an eye on the outcome of the (bill) whose text contains unconstitutional elements and will need immediate intervention," he said in the CBF statement. He also said he needed to stay in Brazil because a Congressional inquiry had begun in the Senate to investigate the CBF. Del Nero, who has been on the FIFA executive committee since 2012 and took over as CBF president in April, said that his absence from the meeting "will not cause any harm to Brazil." He is one of three South American representatives on the 25-member FIFA executive committee. Monday's FIFA meeting will choose a date for a presidential election after incumbent Sepp Blatter's shock announcement in June that he would lay down his mandate. Blatter, who has said he will not be a candidate, made his announcement only four days after being re-elected for a fifth mandate. Monday's meeting will also recommend possible reforms to FIFA's structure which are seen to crucial to the future of soccer's scandal-plagued governing body. (Writing by Brian Homewood in Berne; Editing by Tom Brown)