FIFA bans ex-CONCACAF chief Chuck Blazer from football for life

Chuck Blazer, the former FIFA executive committee member who turned whistleblower for the FBI, has been banned from football for life by the sport's world governing body.
Blazer, 70, has been barred from "taking part in any kind of football-related activity at national and international level" for his "many acts of misconduct" at FIFA and as general secretary of the CONCACAF confederation, FIFA's ethics committee announced in a statement on Thursday.

The American has pleaded guilty in the U.S. court to charges of football-related corruption including accepting bribes to vote for South Africa to host the 2010 World Cup.
The ban is effective immediately and a statement from the adjudicatory chamber of FIFA's ethics committee said: "Mr Blazer committed many and various acts of misconduct continuously and repeatedly during his time as an official in different high-ranking and influential positions at FIFA and CONCACAF.
"In his positions as a football official, he 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."

Chuck Blazer was a cooperating witness with U.S. federal agencies since 2011 after his tax affairs were investigated.

The ethics committee investigation had provisionally suspended its investigations into Blazer primarily because he is seriously ill with cancer.
The appointment of Cornel Borbely as the chief ethics investigator to replace Michael Garcia in December saw the suspension of the investigation lifted and new proceedings against Blazer started.
The ethics committee found Blazer guilty of violations of general rules of conduct, loyalty, confidentiality, duty of disclosure, conflicts of interest, offering and accepting gifts and other benefits, and bribery and corruption.
Blazer went undercover as an FBI informer after being arrested in 2011 and agreed a plea bargain to avoid a jail sentence of up to 75 years.