Disgraced American soccer executive
NEW YORK — Chuck Blazer, the disgraced American soccer executive whose admissions of corruption set off a global scandal that ultimately toppled FIFA President Sepp Blatter, died Wednesday. He was 72.
Mr. Blazer’s death was announcedby his lawyers, Eric Corngold and Mary Mulligan. At a November 2013 court hearing during which Mr. Blazer entered guilty pleas to 10 federal charges, he said he had rectal cancer, diabetes and coronary artery disease.
A person familiar with his death said Mr. Blazer died in New Jersey. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the place of his death was not disclosed in the statement.
“I’ve known Chuck for a lot of years. He did a lot for the sport. Sorry about all the issues regarding FIFA, but he was a good man,” U.S. national team coach Bruce Arena said. “He helped the sport in the United States.”
With girth, charm and a pet parrot, Mr. Blazer was a bon vivant as he made deals from an office and apartment in Trump Tower. The No. 2 official in the governing body of soccer’s North and Central American and Caribbean region from 19902011 and a member of FIFA’s ruling executive committee from 1997-2013, Mr. Blazer was central to the rise of the sport in the U.S. He relished his status, posting a photo on his blog of him in a private jet with Nelson Mandela.
Soccer corruption had been rumored for years before Mr. Blazer accused his boss, Jack Warner, president of the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football, or CONCACAF, and fellow executive committee member Mohamed bin Hammam of offering $40,000 bribes to voters in the 2011 FIFA presidential election. Mr. bin Hammam, a Qatari who headed the Asian Football Confederation, had been the lone challenger to Mr. Blatter, who was elected unopposed to a fourth term after Mr. Warner and Mr. bin Hammam were suspended. Mr. Blatter was elected to a fifth term in 2015 before resigning. But it turned out Mr. Blazer’s conduct was as corrupt as the actions of the people he accused.
A CONCACAF investigation report released in 2013 said BOGDEWIECZMr. Blazer “misappropriated ELEANOR CONCACAF (WISZCZOR) funds to finance his personal lifestyle,” causing the organization to “subsidize rent on his residence in the Trump Tower in New York; purchase apartments at the Mondrian, a luxury hotel and residence in Miami; sign purchase agreements and pay down payments on apartments at the Atlantis resort in the Bahamas.”
U.S. government agents stopped him on a Manhattan street, threatened BRIGGS him with arrest, CHARLESand he “CHUCK”became a government informantTHOMAS in 2011.
U.S. prosecutors have brought charges against more than 40 soccer officials, marketing executives, associates and entities, and prosecutors in Switzerland also have been investigating.
“Chuck hoped to help bring transparency, accountability and fair play to CONCACAF, FIFA and soccer as a whole,” his lawyers said in a statement. “Chuck also accepted responsibility for his own conduct by pleading guilty and owning up to his mistakes.”
Mr. Blazer pleaded guilty in November 2013 to one count each of racketeering conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy and willful failure to DINKFELTfile a Report of Foreign DARLENE A. Bank and Financial Accounts, and to six counts of tax evasion. He forfeited $1.96 million but was never jailed. He was banned from soccer for life by FIFA on July 9, 2015.