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By Brian Homewood
RIO DE JANEIRO, Sept 28 (Reuters) - Brazil's top sporting tribunal is to investigate comments by former Corinthians president Alberto Dualib, who used the word "robbed" to describe the club's 2005 title triumph.
"We need to clarify the context in which this conversation took place," tribunal member Paulo Schmidt told Brazilian television on Friday.
Dualib's remark, made in a telephone conversation and captured by federal police investigating the club's partnership with Media Sports Investments (MSI), became public after being made available to a television network.
"We finished one point ahead, robbed," Dualib was heard to say, apparently referring to the one-point advantage for Corinthians over Internacional.
"If they hadn't voided those 11 games we would have missed out because the rightful champions would have been Internacional," added Dualib, who resigned earlier this month after 14 years at the helm.
The 2005 championship was marred by a match-fixing scandal involving referee Edilson Pereira de Carvalho, who admitted he had taken money from a gambling ring to swing the results of matches.
All 11 matches where Carvalho officiated were replayed.
Corinthians, who were involved in two of Carvalho's games and lost both, picked up four points in the replays while Internacional had to replay one match, winning both the original and the replay.
PENALTY APPEAL
There was more controversy when Corinthians and Internacional drew 1-1 late in the championship.
Internacional were denied a second-half penalty and had striker Tinga sent off but referee Marcio Resende de Freitas later said he had made the wrong decision.
"We want to know if it (robbed) refers to the games which were voided or the particular match against Internacional...or if it refers to a refereeing mistake," said Schmidt.
Corinthians signed a 10-year partnership with MSI in 2004 amid criticism that not enough was known about the London-based group of investors.
The deal was followed by a flurry of high-profile signings, including Argentina forward Carlos Tevez who joined the club from Boca Juniors for a South American record fee of $18 million.
But it went sour last year when MSI sold most of their players, including Tevez who joined English Premier League West Ham United before moving on to Manchester United.
The club's members voted to break off the partnership earlier this year.
In July, a Brazilian judge ordered the arrest of Kia Joorabchian, who ran MSI in Brazil, and Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky, who authorities said was one of the group's investors, on money-laundering charges.
Four Brazilian directors of the club were also told to testify about the alleged money laundering and international player transfers.
Corinthians, who last week named Nelsinho Baptista as their fourth coach of the year, are 17th in the 20-team championship. The bottom four go down.
