FIFA Bans Chuck Blazer for Life
FIFA has expelled former executive committee member Chuck Blazer, who admitted to accepting massive bribes and became an informant in a U.S. government investigation that has shaken the world football body.
In announcing the lifetime ban Thursday, FIFA’s ethics committee said Blazer “committed many and various acts of misconduct continuously and repeatedly” while serving in senior positions at FIFA and CONCACAF.
“In his positions as a football official, he was a key player in schemes involving the offer, acceptance, payment and receipt of undisclosed and illegal payments, bribes and kickbacks as well as other money-making schemes,” the committee said.
The American, who spent two decades as one of the world’s most powerful soccer officials, secretly pleaded guilty in November 2013 to 10 criminal counts as part of an agreement with U.S. prosecutors. The court records were unsealed in May.
Blazer told a U.S. judge that he and others on FIFA’s executive committee accepted bribes in connection with the choice of France as the host of the 1998 World Cup. He said he also accepted bribes linked to the 2010 event awarded to South Africa.
Blazer admitted to taking $11 million in bribes from 2005 to 2010, though media reports have suggested he took substantially more during his career. He forfeited more than $1.9 million at the time of his plea and has agreed to pay more when he is sentenced.
The 70-year-old, who was well-known for his opulent lifestyle and larger-than-life personality, is now wheelchair-bound and seriously ill from cancer in a New York hospital as he awaits sentencing.
