| Chuck Blazer | |
|---|---|
| Born | Charles Blazer 26 April 1945 New York City, United States |
| Residence | New York City |
| Nationality | American |
| Known for | Soccer administrator |
Charles "Chuck" Blazer (born 26 April 1945) is an American soccer administrator.
He has been a member of the FIFA Executive Committee since 1996, and served as Commissioner of the American Soccer League and Executive Vice President of the United States Soccer Federation.[1] He is currently the General Secretary of CONCACAF.
In May 2011, in response to allegations of bribery made by national representatives attending a 10 May meeting of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU), Blazer initiated an investigation of AFC President Mohammed bin Hammam and FIFA Vice President Jack Warner. The investigation was conducted by John P.Collins, former United States federal prosecutor and FIFA Legal Committee member. Its submission led to FIFA's 29 May 2011 suspension of Warner and Bin Hammam from all soccer activities pending the outcome of FIFA's own investigation and procedures.[2][3][4]
At the same time of these allegations, Lisle Austin was named acting president of CONCACAF and on May 31, Austin terminated Blazer’s services with immediate effect for the following four reasons:
During a meeting that was neither convened by the Acting President nor the President[8] on June 2 [9] a majority of the Executive Committee responded to Austin's assertion of authority by suspending him, stating that he was being "banned from all football activities within CONCACAF and at the national level ... for apparent infringement of the CONCACAF Statutes."[10]
Austin asserts that this meeting of the Executive Committee was neither convened by the Acting President or the President nor was Austin given notice of the meeting, according to CONCACAF statutes,[11] this meeting and any purported decisions were to be rendered null and void.[12][13] However, this suspected breach of CONCACAF statutes was disregarded and in a statement provided by CONCACAF, it was announced that Lisle Austin had been provisionally suspended.[14]
On 15 June 2011, Blazer was questioned by FIFA's ethics committee after an official complaint was made in a letter to the committee signed by 11 heads of Caribbean federations. The letter said Blazer made "…statements of contempt and slander that served to impugn the integrity, discriminate against and infringe upon the personal rights…" of CONCACAF members. A further excerpt from the letter reads, “[Blazer] discriminated against certain members of the Concacaf through his contemptuous and denigratory words since all the persons who were singled out were of a specific race.” [15][16]
On August 10, the FIFA Disciplinary Committee “...decided to ban Lisle Austin from taking part in any football-related activity (administrative, sports or any other) for a period of one year for lodging a claim related to football matters…” and until such time as he withdrew his civil suit against CONCACAF.[17]
On Sunday August 14, 2011, Football journalist Andrew Jennings noted in the UK Independent, that the FBI is examining documentary evidence revealing confidential football payments to offshore accounts operated by Chuck Blazer.[8] Specifically, Jennings cites that Blazer accepted $2million in commissions from marketing deals in 2010.[18][19]
On August 16, Reuters reported that the FBI confirmed it was examining documents recording more than $500,000 in payments made by the Caribbean Football Union to Blazer.[20]