The information supplied by Blazer is said, in a wide-ranging article in the New York Daily News, to implicate a number of senior football officials within the FIFA hierarchy.

The American is reported to have agreed to cooperate with the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service after being threatened with unpaid tax crimes on as much as $29 million (£18 million/€23 million) of income, most of it received via his work as former general secretary of the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF).

Former FIFA Executive Committee member Chuck Blazer is the main FBI informant into money laundering and fraud in football, according to the Daily News in New York
©New York Daily News

At the London 2012 Olympic Games, Blazer organised and requested a series of meetings with colleagues and football leaders, including members of the FIFA Executive Committee who voted for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to be held in Russia and Qatar respectively, which he secretly recorded at the Mayfair hotel using a modified key ring that contained a tiny microphone.

Blazer has not been involved in football since May 2013 when he was banned by FIFA from taking part in any kind of football-related activity at national and international level.

The FIFA Ethics Committee had earlier opened investigation proceedings against Blazer following referral of the final report of the CONCACAF Integrity Committee into his conduct and that of the former President of CONCACAF and FIFA Executive Committee member Jack Warner.

Chuck Blazer was the whistleblower who brought down Jack Warner following the cash-for-votes scandal in 2011 ©Getty Images






Blazer, currently in New York undergoing a personal battle against colon cancer, had received more than $20 million (£12.5 million/€16 million) in compensation from CONCACAF, including $17 million (£10.5 million/€13.5 million) in commissions which were paid, mostly, via an offshore marketing company.

He has long been suspected of having cut a deal with the American law and tax authorities and was the whistleblower who brought down Warner following the cash-for-votes scandal in 2011.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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