Chuck Blazer Under Investigation By FBI

The FBI is investigating documents detailing over $500,000 in disbursements sent by a Caribbean soccer group directly to FIFA U.S. executive committee member, Chuck Blazer, according to reports. Blazer also serves as the general secretary of CONCACAF -- soccer’s leading body within the Caribbean, as well as North and Central America. The FBI would not disclosed a timetable or the severity of its investigation.

FBI officials explained that the inquiry was associated with a report released by London journalist Andrew Jennings last week. Jennings -- an investigative specialist within the realm of corruption in international sports -- detailed several documents that allocated Blazer to receive the three offshore payments over the last 15 years.

FIFA has banned Mohamed bin Hammam from football for life, making the Qatari the most senior FIFA official to have been convicted of corruption in the 107-year history of the world football governing body. The ethics committee handed down their punishment after months of investigation that showed bin Hammam had offered up $40,000 bribes in exchange for votes in the FIFA presidential election. It is expected that bin Hammam will now take his case to the FIFA appeals committee and if unsuccessful there, the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

It was alleged that bin Hammam offered up bribes to members of the Caribbean Football Union in his quest to unseat Sepp Blatter as FIFA president. It came just months after he helped Qatar shockingly win the right to host the 2022 World Cup, which cemented his status as a major powerbroker in world football and a threat to Blatter’s reign. Evidence compiled by FIFA executive committee member Chuck Blazer started the investigation and FIFA claimed to have found additional evidence afterward that confirmed bin Hammam’s guilt.

Originally, four associations admitted to accepting or being offered $40,000 cash bribes that the FIFA ethics committee said was part of “comprehensive, convincing and overwhelming evidence” that bin Hammam had violated FIFA rules. Now the number of associations that have told investigators that they were offered bribes is up to nine. Allegedly, $1 million has been paid out in bribes.

The scandal started when FIFA executive committee member Chuck Blazer sent evidence to FIFA that included photos and sworn affidavits of bin Hammam’s attempt to bribe voters to vote for him. The incident occurred at the Caribbean Football Union meetings and also led to three others being investigated by the FIFA ethics committee. Former CONCACAF president Jack Warner had his investigation dropped when he agreed to resign from all football-related posts, while two CFU will also be at the hearing on June 22 and 23.

So much for that tsunami of football, eh Jack? Jack Warner, former head of CONCACAF and FIFA vice-president, has resigned his various positions in international football and walked away from FIFA. This conveniently happened after a major scandal saw Sepp Blatter maintain his position as President by running unopposed in an election and left Warner facing corruption allegations (along with supposed-to-be-presidential-candidate Mohamed bin Hammam).

So, Warner has resigned rather than face a serious corruption charge, and because he resigned, he clearly is not corrupt. Got all that? Good.

You didn’t think the demand from the England FA that the FIFA presidential election should be postponed would actually happen, did you? Because it most definitely hasn’t. FA chief David Bernstein put the matter to a vote following Mohamed bin Hammam’s ineligibility to run against incumbent Sepp Blatter, leaving Blatter to run unopposed, but Bernstein received just 17 out of 206 possible votes in favour of a postponement, with a further 17 abstentions. Worse, several took the opportunity to dismiss Bernstein out of hand as a whiner, with senior vice-president Julio Grondona seemingly relishing the chance to mock the English:

The election will go ahead as planned and Sepp Blatter will run unopposed (and presumably he’ll win). It’s worth remembering that while Blatter is wildly unpopular in English-speaking areas of the world, the attitudes of those elsewhere towards him are markedly different, and it shouldn’t come as any surprise that so many FAs are supporting him. This, in other words, was a bit of a fool’s errand by Bernstein.

Chuck Blazer was fired as CONCACAF general secretary, then he wasn’t. It is just another day in world football, be it in FIFA or one of its confederations like CONCACAF. Blazer was the whistle-blower who compiled the evidence leading to the suspension of four by FIFA and as a reward for his ethical actions he was fired by the CONCACAF acting president Lisle Austin. The only problem is that the acting president had no authority to suspend Blazer so the American gets to keep his job.

“This attempted action was taken without any authority,” a statement from CONCACAF read. “Under the CONCACAF Statutes, jurisdiction over the General Secretary rests solely with the CONCACAF Executive Committee which has taken no action. Further a majority of the Executive Committee Members have advised Mr. Austin that he does not have the authority to take such action. Chuck Blazer continues as CONCACAF General Secretary and with the full authority of his office.”

Chuck Blazer’s reward for doing the seemingly ethical thing and compiling evidence of bribery to send to FIFA is a firing. Acting CONCACAF president Lisle Austin announced that he had fired Blazer as general secretary of the confederation for what he termed, “inexcusable and a gross misconduct of duty and judgment.” Whether or not Austin has the authority to fire Blazer is unclear.

Blazer’s bribery allegations led to Mohamed bin Hammam, Jack Warner and two members of the Caribbean Football Union all being provisionally suspended from all football-related activities. The suspension ruled out bin Hammam for running for FIFA president, as he intended to, and also led to Warner not being able to continue with his post as CONCACAF president. With Warner out, Austin has stepped in and acted as president.

Some good work by Martyn Ziegler has revealed one key photo in the evidence against Mohamed bin Hammam, Jack Warner and two member of the Caribbean Football Union. The four were accused of offering $40,000 bribes in exchange for votes in the upcoming FIFA presidential election after FIFA vice-president Chuck Blazer compiled evidence and sent it to the FIFA ethics committee. It led to the provisional suspension of all four as the ethics committee continues to investigate the matter. In the file of evidence was this photo of the cash offered in the bribe.

The scandal is just another in a long list of allegations of corruption within FIFA. The suspension of bin Hammam, Asian Football Confederation president, ruled him out of Wednesday’s election for FIFA president and has left the incumbent, Sepp Blatter, as the only candidate. With evidence like the photo above and sworn affidavits that the money was offered as part of a bribe it is unclear what further investigation the ethics committee needs.

Nine of FIFA’s 24-member executive committee have been accused of corruption in the past seven months. Two members of the executive committee have been suspended from FIFA for two years for accepting bribes and two FIFA vice-presidents who are also presidents of FIFA confederations are provisionally suspended in connection to a bribery case. The FIFA president, Sepp Blatter, had proceedings opened against him by the FIFA ethics committee. The FIFA general secretary wrote to one of the suspended vice-presidents that Qatar “bought the WC [World Cup].” Even so, FIFA are just fine!

In a press conference to address the recent wrongdoings, Blatter flatly denied that FIFA were in crisis. Who needs executives anyways?

When FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke’s email to FIFA vice-president Jack Warner was released, the key phrase came towards the end where Valcke said that Qatar “bought the WC [World Cup].” It seemed to be confirmation of many people’s suspicions that the small Arab country had bribed voters to win the right to host the 2022 World Cup prior to being awarded the tournament in December. Both Valcke and Qatar are denying that the World Cup was bought though and are showing no interest in investigating the matter further.

Valcke, whose email supposedly served as confirmation that the World Cup was bought, denied the claim. He said that it was a private email taken out of context and that he would discuss the matter further.

An email between FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke and CONCACAF president and FIFA vice-president Jack Warner states that Qatar bought the right to host the 2022 World Cup. The email adds credence to the belief by some that Qatar bribed their way to winning the right to host back in December and is just another in a long list of allegations that FIFA suffers from corruption.

The email between Valcke and Warner was regarding Mohamed bin Hammam, who was running opposite of incumbent Sepp Blatter for FIFA president. The Qatari ruffled some feathers within FIFA by daring to challenge Blatter, but the tail end of the email in which Valcke implies that Qatar bought the right to host the World Cup.

Mohamed bin Hammam still isn’t happy with the corruption allegations leveled towards him by FIFA with a presidential election coming up, despite Sepp Blatter now also being treated similarly. His personal website (written rather amusingly in the third person) described the charges as a ‘tawdry manoeuvre’, which is a phrase I personally will be throwing into my conversations far more often:

By this point, it’s all getting a little bit silly. Both the current President and his only competition in the upcoming election are under investigation for corruption charges, somehow making FIFA look even more ridiculous than they usually do. Bin Hammam has a point, as well - this does simply look like manoeuvring on Blatter’s part to get him disqualified from the election, even if Blatter is being charged as well.

FIFA has opened an investigation into bribery claims against FIFA vice-presidents Mohamed bin Hammam and Jack Warner after receiving evidence from FIFA executive committee member Chuck Blazer. It is another in a long line of corruption allegations within FIFA with the intensity of the scrutiny picking up after Russia was awarded the right to host the 2018 World Cup and Qatar was awarded the right to host the 2022 World Cup in December.

What makes these allegations carry extra weight is that bin Hammam is running for FIFA president with the vote between he and current president Sepp Blatter coming on June 1. In addition, Warner has long been a close ally of Blatter’s and as the president of CONCACAF, he carries weight within FIFA as well. Two members of the CFU, Debbie Minguell and Jason Sylvester, are also part of the investigation.