Chuck Blazer Bio: Who Is The American Soccer Executive Turned FIFA Informant?

American soccer bigwig Chuck Blazer‘s biography has become one of the most interesting to come out of the FIFA corruption scandal, as it turns out he both took part in the corruption and its undoing.

Chuck Blazer Bio

Blazer, 70, was a member of FIFA’s executive committee until 2013, but during his last couple of years with the organization, he’d been working as an informant for the FBI and IRS. When given the choice to go to jail for his crimes or to help the authorities get his former colleagues in their net, Blazer chose to save his own skin and agreed to wear a wire to gather evidence to take them down, reported the New York Daily News.

Before Blazer became a part of the upper echelon of the global soccer business, he had worked as a salesman, coaching his son’s soccer games on the weekends. Eventually, Blazer applied his business savvy to the local soccer leagues and quickly rose higher in the sport – from regional organizations to CONCACAF (Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football).

Blazer eventually formed a close working relationship with Jack Warner, helping him get elected as CONCACAF president and move the confederation’s headquarters to the U.S. As part of his deal with CONCACAF, Blazer asked and received 10% of its earnings.

By 1996, Blazer was in with FIFA and served on its Executive Committee up through 2013. He was suspended by FIFA in May 2013 after an ethics committee learned that he had potentially taken in $15 million extra for his (and his cats’) lavish living arrangements, reported CNN. Blazer had already left CONCACAF in 2011 when an investigation was launched into Warner and Mohamed bin Hammam.

“I’m perfectly satisfied that I did an excellent job,” Blazer said back in 2014 of his time working at CONCACAF. “I spent 21 years building the confederation and its competitions and its revenues and I’m the one responsible for its good levels of income.”

Blazer has already pleaded guilty to racketeering, wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering, income tax evasion and a failure to file a report of foreign bank accounts.