The man who reportedly spent years helping US justice officials find their way through murky FIFA corruption allegations got interested in
football as his son’s coach in the 1970s in the New York City suburbs. His death was reported Wednesday by numerous media outlets.
Charles “Chuck” Blazer was a corpulent man with Santa Claus-like beard and hair, who enjoyed the pizzazz of international football, but he died out of the limelight, after a lifetime ban from football.
Born in 1945, and later a New York University business graduate, Blazer began as a volunteer soccer coach helping his son’s team,
before he joined local and regional boards and then rose to the highest levels of administration in the sport.
From 1990-2011, Blazer served as general secretary of the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association
Football (CONCACAF) – the period of much of his alleged illegal activity.
Blazer pleaded guilty in November 2013 to a lengthy list of charges including tax evasion, racketeering, money laundering and wire fraud,
and agreed to pay 1.9 million dollars in fines.
The charges and plea were kept secret until 2015 when US justice officials laid out the wide-ranging case against 14 FIFA officials
and others for illegally skimming and distributing vast amounts of money from international tournaments and other FIFA activities.
Among Blazer’s main wrongdoings was his involvement in the 10-million-dollar vote buying scheme for the 2010 World Cup, according to the indictment.
The alleged bribery took place in 2004, as the FIFA executive committee considered bids from Morocco, South Africa and Egypt to
host the 2010 World Cup – world football’s premier event.
Blazer travelled to Morocco ahead of the vote with an unnamed co-conspirator, who was offered 1 million dollars for his vote.
Soon afterwards, Blazer learned from the co-conspirator that representatives of FIFA, the South African government and the South
African bid committee “was prepared to arrange for the government of South Africa to pay 10 million dollars to a soccer organisation
controlled by co-conspirator #1,” court documents say.
Morocco, in effect, was outbid on the vote, which went to South Africa.
Blazer had been promised 1 million dollars of the sum but was kept in the dark until he learned years later that the 10 million dollars
had been paid out. Though years have passed since the vote, Blazer reportedly later told co-conspirator #1 that he wanted his portion of the money.
Investigators were first led to Blazer’s illegal dealings by his failure to pay six years of US income taxes from 2005-10.
According to media reports at the time, Blazer was known as “Mr 10 Percent” because he skimmed 10 percent off of all business dealings within CONCACAF, while living in luxury in New York.
He also kept an internet blog showing his interactions with world figures, including former South African president Nelson Mandela.
In April 2013, CONCACAF’S integrity committee issued a scathing report on Blazer and Jack Warner of Trinidad and Tobago, one of the
14 indicted figures who had worked closely with Blazer in the organisation.
The CONCACAF report said that Blazer had “misappropriated CONCACAF funds to finance his personal lifestyle” to the tune of more than 15
million dollars.
The money was used “without authorization” to subsidise his residence in New York’s Trump Tower, purchase apartments in a luxury Miami
residence and pay for apartments at a Bahamas resort.
Late in life, the rotund Blazer suffered from various illnesses, claiming he suffered from colon cancer, diabetes and coronary artery
disease. He wasn’t able to take part actively in soccer anyway, after a 2015 ban from the sport, from the world governing body.
For all his misdeeds, Blazer is credited with modernising CONCACAF and US Soccer, a fact acknowledged by many, including the current US
soccer team coach Bruce Arena.
A statement from his lawyer, issued after his death, said that Blazer had always taken “full responsibility” for his mistakes.
