Rebelo, who is expected to take office on Monday, replaces Orlando Silva, who stepped down on Wednesday following accusations of heading a scheme to embezzle Ministry funds.

　　The new minister is a House Representative affiliated to the Communist Party of Brazil (PC do B), the same as Silva. The Sports Minister is the only position taken by PC do B in Rousseff's administration.

　　Rebelo, 55, presided a decade ago a special Congressional committee in charge of investigating the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF). Recently, he was the main author of a project to reform Brazil's Forest Code.

　　The project earned Rebelo a bad relations with environmentalists, for whom the project is exceedingly favorable to the agricultural sector and less concerned with actual environmental protection.

　　The change in the Sports Ministry is the eighth cabinet shift in 10 months of Rousseff's government. Two swapped positions and six resigned, five of them following corruption accusations.