Blazer admits Taking bribes with other Members of FIFA ExCo | More Revelation on South Africa 2010 World Cup Sandals

 Culled from NewWire

Chuck Blazer, a former top official at Fifa, admitted that he and other members of the Executive Committee (ExCo) at football’s global governing body took bribes in connection with the award of the 2010 World Cup to South Africa, it emerged yesterday (Wednesday) evening.

The admission from Blazer (pictured), who served on the ExCo from 1997 to 2013, was detailed in a heavily redacted transcript of a 2013 US hearing that was unsealed yesterday. During the hearing, Blazer pleaded guilty to 10 charges and revealed that he also facilitated bribes surrounding the bidding process for the 1998 World Cup, which was hosted by France.

“Beginning in or around 2004 and continuing through 2011, I and others on the Fifa executive committee agreed to accept bribes in conjunction with the selection of South Africa as the host nation for the 2010 World Cup,” Blazer said.

Last week, US prosecutors indicted 14 people, including seven Fifa officials, on charges of bribery, racketeering and money laundering. Four others, including Blazer, had already been charged. Jack Warner, who left the ExCo in 2011 following allegations of financial wrongdoing, was one of those to be charged.

“I will no longer keep secrets for them who actively seek to destroy the country,” Warner said in a paid political broadcast in Trinidad and Tobago entitled ‘The gloves are off’ on Wednesday evening. Later on, he promised supporters at a rally that he would produce an “avalanche” of revelations.

Meanwhile the US Department of Justice’s investigation into allegations of corruption at Fifa has been expanded to include the bidding processes for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, an unnamed US law enforcement official told the Reuters news agency. The 2018 tournament was awarded to Russia and the 2022 event was handed to Qatar on the same day in December 2010.

Despite securing a new four-year mandate last Friday, Sepp Blatter announced on Tuesday that he would stand down as Fifa president when a successor is elected at an extraordinary congress to be held between December 2015 and March 2016. International footballers’ union FIFPro today called on Fifa to “publicly disclose all relevant documents pertaining to the events and decisions surrounding Sepp Blatter's resignation.”

FIFPro added: “At the conclusion of a two-day meeting of the FIFPro board, FIFPro demands full accountability to the players and all other stakeholders, including the fans, who have been made to suffer by the crisis of confidence enveloping Fifa as football's global governing body. Such accountability is essential if the reform process is to be properly informed and ultimately successful.”