New Revelations in FIFA

• 06.04.2015, 21:50
•  Europe,  World

A FIFA official and Ex-Vice President Chuck Blazer told a US federal judge in 2013 that he and other members of the executive committee accepted bribes to vote for several events including the World Cups, particularly the one in South Africa in 2010 and in France in 1998.

Blazer was the second highest official in FIFA’s North and Central American and Caribbean region (CONCACAF) for over two decades and on FIFA’s executive committee for 15 years.

A court transcript was released from a 2013 hearing in New York in which Blazer reached an agreement with US prosecutors he would be pleaded guilty for racketeering and other charges.

Blazer's confession came after the US prosecutors indicted 14 people on charges of bribery, racketeering and money laundering last week. Among them are members of FIFA (two of them vice-presidents) as well as marketing, broadcasting executives. Top FIFA officials were arrested in Zurich, Switzerland, four others had already been charged, including Blazer.

The US justice department alleges they accepted bribes estimated more than $150 million over a 24-year period. In addition to the US case, Swiss authorities have launched a criminal investigation on how the 2018 and 2022 World Cups were allocated.

Earlier, on Tuesday, FIFA ex-President Sepp Blatter announced he was resigning. This news of Sepp Blatter’s resignation was a shock for his followers who had just elected him and it drew their outrage. Only four days earlier, on May 29, they had helped him stay in power as president of FIFA, the sport’s international governing body, by voting to keep him for a fifth term in office. The next day, Blatter was given a 10-minute standing ovation by some 400 staff as he returned to FIFA's Zurich headquarters after announcing he was to step down. 

The whole FIFA revelation story started with ex-President Blatter being accused in corruption. His reelection came as another field of collision of Russia with the West. Those who are for strengthening sanctions on Russia say it should lose the 2018 football World Cup if the US or Swiss authorities uncover corruption in its bid. Following Blazer’s recent confession that he and other executives had been receiving bribe for almost every event location selection, the US authorities have a major chance to reveal bribery also in Russia’s 2018 World Cup election. The same may refer to Qatar, which is to host football World Cup in 2022.

On the other hand Blatter's resignation aroused African Football officials wary of Western dominance in sport and politics. Something which is again a matter of Russia-US tense relations, this time excluding the EU.