By Andrew Warshaw
July 9 – The reputation of former FIFA and CONCACAF powerbroker Chuck Blazer reached an all-time low today when he was banned for life by FIFA for widespread corruption, bringing to end the career of one of the most colourful and controversial figures in football politics.
While the punishment meted out to the burly American was a mere formality after his guilty plea to bribery, money laundering and tax evasion in the United States, the ruling by FIFA’s ethics committee, based partly on facts presented by US prosecutors, represented another landmark moment in the ongoing corruption scandal that has engulfed football’s world governing body and led to Sepp Blatter’s decision to step down as president.
“Mr Blazer committed many and various acts of misconduct continuously and repeatedly during his time as an official in different high-ranking and influential positions at FIFA and CONCACAF,” FIFA’s ethics committee said.
“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.”
Blazer was found to have breached FIFA rules on loyalty, confidentiality, duty of disclosure, conflicts of interest, offering and accepting gifts and bribery and corruption – pretty damning to say the least.
Currently seriously ill in a New York hospital, the one-time larger-than-life Blazer agreed to work under cover with the US federal authorities as part of a plea bargain. It was his evidence which helped snare several other senior football officials in that infamous dawn raid on the Baur au Lac hotel in Zurich just before the FIFA Congress as part of an FBI probe into $150 million of kickbacks stretching back 24 years that involved transactions through US banks.
Blazer, CONCACAF’s second highest official from 1990 to 2011, served on FIFA’s executive committee for 16 years. Whilst he can take credit for the rise of professional soccer in the United States which culminated in the hosting of the 1994 World Cup and launch of Major League Soccer, he also used his marketing savvy to line his own extra-large pockets.
In his 2013 testimony that only recently reached the public domain, Blazer admitted that he and others had agreed to accept bribes in relation to the choice of South Africa as 2010 World Cup hosts. He said he also facilitated bribes over the 1998 World Cup in France.
FIFA had suspended its investigation into Blazer because of his health problems but reopened it in December. In its statement FIFA added: “The decision was taken on the basis of investigations carried out by the investigatory chamber of the ethics committee in response to the final report of the CONCACAF integrity committee and the latest facts presented by the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.”
Blazer’s evidence also led to the corruption charges being levelled at his one-time partner in crime, former CONCACAF boss Jack Warner who is currently facing extradition application over a series of allegations which he denies.
A charismatic media-friendly figure on the football politics scene before being shamed and disgraced, four years ago Blazer hailed himself as a beacon of morality when he blew the whistle on the infamous cash-for-votes scandal involving FIFA’s Caribbean members at a meeting organised by Warner in his native Trinidad on behalf of then Asian supremo Mohamed bin Hammam.
Several delegates reported to Blazer that they had been offered $40,000 which he in turn reported to FIFA, prompting the biggest scandal in FIFA’s history – at the time anyway.
His actions led to the downfall of bin Hammam but it soon became clear his own financial dealings were far from clean when a 2013 CONCACAF probe revealed Blazer had creamed off more than $20 million in compensation from the confederation, including $17 million in commission.
He was described as “entirely negligent” for failing to file income tax returns for CONCACAF which led to the body losing its tax-exempt status as a non-profit organisation. The revelations led to FIFA launching a disciplinary inquiry into Blazer’s activities which he pre-empted by voluntarily relinquishing all his relevant posts.
Blazer’s football career may be over but his legacy, such as it is, lives on. The rights to an upcoming book of his football administration were apparently bought last month. They should make for interesting and, for some, uncomfortable reading.
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1734852168labto1734852168ofdlr1734852168owedi1734852168sni@w1734852168ahsra1734852168w.wer1734852168dna1734852168