Chuck Blazer, the corrupt former U.S.
soccer official turned FIFA whistleblower, has been banned from all
football-related activities for life by the Ethics Committee of world soccer's
governing body.
Blazer, who served on FIFA's Executive
Committee between 1997 and 2013 and as CONCACAF general secretary from 1990 to
2011, pleaded guilty to a string of charges brought by U.S. prosecutors
including racketeering, wire fraud, money laundering and income tax evasion in
2013.
FIFA's Ethics Committee says it
suspended its original investigations into Blazer in May 2013 after receiving
written assurances that the 70-year-old, who is suffering from colon cancer,
would not engage in football-related activities.
Proceedings reopened in December 2014
and have now concluded resulting in Blazer's ban from "any kind of
football-related activity at national and international level for life."
"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," the FIFA statement 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's life ban is "effective
from July 9 2015," FIFA said.
In court records released in June, Blazer revealed that he and other members of
the FIFA executive committee took bribes from 2004-2011 and helped South Africa
land the 2010 World Cup as well as facilitating a bribe relating to the 1998
World Cup bidding process.
According to an investigation by the New York Daily News, Blazer began cooperating
with U.S. Federal government officials from the FBI and IRS in 2011 and
reportedly used a keychain wired with a microphone to gather evidence at the
London 2012 Olympics.
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