Chuck Blazer
Former CONCACAF general secretary and US member of the FIFA executive committee
- Entries
- 8
- On the record
- 4
- Stories
- 1
- Latest entry
- Jun 3, 2015
The record
Chuck Blazer, legal name Charles Gordon Blazer, was General Secretary of CONCACAF, the soccer confederation for North and Central America and the Caribbean, from 1990 through December 2011, and a member of FIFA's executive committee from 1997 through 2013. In the executive committee role he took part in choosing World Cup host countries; at CONCACAF he negotiated sponsorship and media rights. Both descriptions come from his own words in federal court in Brooklyn.
In May 2011 he accused CONCACAF president Jack Warner and Mohamed bin Hammam of trying to pay Caribbean delegates $40,000 each to back Bin Hammam for the FIFA presidency. That October he announced he would leave the CONCACAF post in December while keeping his FIFA seat, telling the Associated Press he had been running a governing body long enough and wanted to do something entrepreneurial.
On November 25, 2013, in a sealed proceeding before Judge Raymond J. Dearie, he pleaded guilty count by count in case 13-CR-602. He admitted agreeing to facilitate a bribe tied to the 1998 World Cup host vote, taking bribes and kickbacks on Gold Cup rights from 1993 into the early 2000s, agreeing with other executive committee members to accept bribes over South Africa's selection for 2010, and failing to file tax returns from 2005 to 2010. The transcript was filed publicly on June 3, 2015.
Roles and honours on the record
Every entry, newest first
- Admitted
Secretly pleaded guilty to tax and corruption charges, The New York Times reported; the plea was unsealed 27 May 2015. FIFA corruption case: 14 charged over $150M in alleged bribes
Stories in this file
The record, entry by entry
- 1990 Admitted He became General Secretary of CONCACAF, a post he told the court he held through December 2011, with responsibility for negotiating sponsorship and media rights. U.S. District Court, E.D.N.Y., transcript of Nov. 25, 2013 proceeding (filed June 3, 2015)
- 1997 Reported He was first elected to FIFA's executive committee, the AP reported; he later told the court he served on it from 1997 through 2013 and helped select World Cup hosts. Associated Press report via ESPN
- 2011-05 Reported Blazer alleged that CONCACAF president Jack Warner and Mohamed bin Hammam tried to pay Caribbean delegates $40,000 each to vote for Bin Hammam in the FIFA presidential election. Bin Hammam withdrew and was banned for life by FIFA, a ban he contested. Associated Press report via ESPN
- 2011-10-06 Reported He announced he would step down as CONCACAF general secretary in December after holding the post since 1990, while keeping his FIFA executive committee seat, whose term ran to mid-2013. Associated Press report via ESPN
- 2013-11-25 Admitted In a sealed proceeding before Judge Raymond J. Dearie in Brooklyn, he pleaded guilty and allocuted to racketeering conspiracy, an honest-services wire fraud scheme from 2004 to 2011, money laundering from 2008 to 2011, and six counts of failing to file tax returns for 2005 to 2010. U.S. District Court, E.D.N.Y., plea transcript
- 2013-11-25 Admitted He admitted agreeing around 1992 to facilitate a bribe tied to the 1998 World Cup host vote, accepting bribes and kickbacks on rights to the 1996-2003 Gold Cups, and agreeing from 2004 to 2011 with others on FIFA's executive committee to accept bribes over South Africa's selection for the 2010 World Cup. U.S. District Court, E.D.N.Y., plea transcript
- 2015-06-03 Official The transcript of the sealed November 2013 plea proceeding was filed on the public docket as Document 19 in case 13-CR-602. U.S. District Court, E.D.N.Y., docket filing