GENEVA (AP) – Chuck Blazer was banned for life by FIFA’s ethics committee on Thursday for widespread corruption, finally ending the career of the longtime most senior American in world football.
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He was a cooperating witness with United States federal businesses since 2011 after his tax affairs have been investigated.
FIFA’s ethics committee says its case used “the latest facts presented by the USA Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York”.
Ex- Chilean football federation president and one-time FIFA presidency hopeful Harold Mayne-Nicholls receives a seven-year ban from football by the FIFA’s Ethics Committee.
It was revealed in June that the American was among those to accept and facilitate bribes as part of the bidding processes for the France (1998) and South Africa (2010) World Cups.
Blazer is charged with committing “various acts of misconduct”, which includes the “offer, acceptance, payment and receipt of undisclosed and illegal payments, bribes and kickbacks”.
Blazer, now 70, advised a Brooklyn courtroom in November 2013 that he had been handled for rectal most cancers.
The ethics committee found Blazer guilty of violations of general rules of conduct, loyalty, confidentiality, duty of disclosure, conflicts of interest, offering and accepting gifts and other benefits, and bribery and corruption.
The body had taken the decision after receiving written confirmation that Blazer would not be engaging in any football-related activities until at least 31 December 2013, and after taking into consideration circumstances which made it advisable to provisionally suspend the investigations, especially for reasons of Blazer’s ill health.
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Federation Internationale de Football Association opened an ethics investigation against Blazer after the corrupt financial management of CONCACAF was exposed in 2012.
