Chuck Blazer: Fifa 'supergrass' banned from all football-related activity for life by independent ethics committee
Blazer pleaded guilty to 10 charges in 2013 which included bribery, money laundering and tax evasion
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Your support makes all the difference.Former Fifa executive committee member Chuck Blazer has been banned from all football-related activity for life, the world governing body's independent ethics committee has announced.
Blazer has been labelled the 'Fifa supergrass' that revealed a string of offences he committed during his time on the Fifa Executive Committee in relation to the 1998 and 2010 World Cup bid processes, and he has been banned for his "many acts of misconduct" while general secretary of the Concacaf confederation as well as Fifa Exco member.
The American agreed to go undercover for the FBI as part of a plea bargain that saw him avoid a possible 75-year jail sentence, having pleaded guilty to 10 charges in 2013, which included bribery, money laundering and tax evasion.
In order to avoid serving a jail sentence, Blazer agreed to “provide truthful, complete and accurate information” to US prosecutors and “participate in undercover activities pursuant to the specific instructions of law enforcement agents”.
In May, seven current Fifa member were arrested on corruption charges in Zurich ahead of the Fifa Congress that saw Sepp Blatter re-elected as Fifa president as part of the investigation into widespread corruption within football's world governing body.
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."
The investigation into Blazer had been suspended due to the 70-year-old's serious cancer illness, but new chief ethics investigator Cornel Borbely - who replaced Michael Garcia in December - decided to lift the suspension and open new proceedings against Blazer.
The investigation by the ethics committee found Blazer was guilty of violations of general rules of conduct, loyalty, confidentiality, duty of disclosure, conflicts of interest, offering and accepting gifts and other benefits, and bribery and corruption.
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