FIFA Expels Chuck Blazer for Life for Bribery, Corruption

Chuck Blazer was banned for life by FIFA’s ethics committee on Thursday for widespread corruption, finally ending the career of the longtime most senior American in world football

FIFA President Sepp Blatter (L) taps shoulders of the general-secretary of the Caribbean, North and Central American (CONCACAF) Chuck Blazer, on June 1, 2011 at the start of the 61st FIFA congress at the Zurich Hallenstadion in Oerlikon near Zurich. Fabrice Cofrini/AFP/Getty Images

GENEVA—Chuck Blazer was banned for life by FIFA’s ethics committee on Thursday for widespread corruption, finally ending the career of the longtime most senior American in world football.

The expulsion from football duty was a formality after Blazer’s guilty plea to racketeering and tax evasion charges was unsealed in May by United States federal agencies.

FIFA’s ethics panel made its ruling using evidence from the American federal case which has plunged FIFA and international football into crisis.

“(Blazer) 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 FIFA ethics committee said in a statement.

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