Former FIFA Exec Chuck Blazer, a "key figure in a U.S. investigation into corruption" by football officials, on Thursday was banned for life from football activities by the sport's governing body, according to Franklin & Homewood of REUTERS. Blazer, who in '13 "secretly pleaded guilty" in the U.S. to bribery and financial offenses, "was found by FIFA's ethics committee to have breached rules on loyalty, confidentiality, duty of disclosure, conflicts of interest, offering and accepting gifts and bribery and corruption." The ethics committee said in a statement, "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" (REUTERS, 7/9). The BBC reported Blazer admitted he and others on the FIFA exec committee agreed to "accept bribes in connection with the choice of
South Africa as 2010 World Cup hosts." He said that he "also facilitated bribes over the 1998 event." A document of his agreement with U.S. prosecutors shows Blazer was "secretly co-operating with them" from Dec. '11 (BBC, 7/9).
WEBB-WARNER CONNECTION: REUTERS' Simon Evans reported suspended CONCACAF President Jeffrey Webb was a director 10 years ago of a Cayman Islands company controlled by former CONCACAF President Jack Warner, who is "facing U.S. corruption charges, a court document shows." The document links Webb to "controversial television rights deals that were struck in the region during Warner's 21 years at the helm of CONCACAF." A lawyer for Warner "declined to comment on the document." Webb's lawyer was not "immediately reachable" (REUTERS, 7/8).
