Chuck Blazer, the former FIFA Executive Committee member who turned whistleblower for the FBI, has been banned from football for life, it was announced today. 

The ban has been imposed by FIFA's Ethics Committee for his "many acts of misconduct" at FIFA and as general secretary of the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF).

Blazer, 70, worked undercover with prosecutors in the United States after pleading guilty to charges of bribery, money laundering and tax evasion.

Among the charges he has pleaded too are accepting bribes to vote for South Africa to host the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Blazer had bugged meetings with senior FIFA executives during the Olympics in London three years with a wire device concealed in a key fob to help gather evidence for the FBI. 

The ban is effective immediately and a statement from the Adjudicatory Chamber of FIFA's Ethics Committee said: "Mr Blazer committed many and various acts of misconduct continuously and repeatedly during his time as an official in different high-ranking and influential positions at FIFA and CONCACAF.

"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."

Blazer was the second highest official in CONCACAF from 1990 to 2011 and also served on FIFA's ruling Executive Committee between 1997 and 2013.

The Ethics Committee investigation had provisionally suspended its investigations into Blazer primarily because he is seriously ill with cancer.

When Dr Cornel Borbély took over the role of independent chairman of the investigatory chamber of the Ethics Committee in December 2014, he lifted this suspension and started new proceedings against Blazer, which have led to today’s announcement of the lifelong ban.

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