FIFA expels Chuck Blazer for life for bribery, corruption

ESPN FC’s Ross Dyer questions the impact CONCACAF’s new reform will have.

The adjudicatory chamber of the Ethics Committee, chaired by Hans-Joachim Eckert, has made a decision to ban the ex- FIFA Executive Committee member and CONCACAF General Secretary Chuck Blazer from taking part in any kind of football-related activity at national and global level for life.

Blazer served on FIFA’s executive panel for 16 years until 2013.

Blazer, who was also general secretary of CONCACAF, which governs the sport in North and Central America and the Caribbean, was banned by FIFA’s ethics committee, which said its decision was based on investigations in response to facts presented by USA prosecutors.

The release of the documents came days after the US Department of Justice indicted 14 individuals on charges of racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering that involved the world’s football governing body.

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”.

Seven of those were arrested in Zurich and are awaiting extradition to the US Four others had already been charged, including Blazer, whose cooperation as a key cooperating witness in the investigation.

Blazer, 70, has given evidence to the United States authorities investigating football corruption and is gravely ill in a New York hospital suffering from cancer. However Dr Cornel Borbely, Fifa’s Ethics Committee chairman, decided in December 2014 to re-open proceedings and Blazer will now no longer play any role in football.