The American former Fifa executive cooperating with the FBI on a major corruption inquiry, Chuck Blazer, has admitted that he and other members of the all-powerful executive committee were bribed in return for voting for South Africa’s bid for the 2010 World Cup.
Blazer’s decision to assist the FBI appears to have been a critical breakthrough for the investigation now engulfing world football’s governing body.
Formally entering a guilty plea during the hearing at New York’s eastern district court, Blazer told the judge his involvement in the acceptance bribes in connection with the South Africa bid began “in or around 2004 and continuing through 2011”.
The 70-year-old also admitted in the court facilitating the payment of a bribe relating to the 1998 World Cup in France. Blazer, an eccentric power broker for American soccer for decades, and a member of the Fifa executive committee for six years until 2013, made the admissions in testimony to a New York judge in 2013 which was made public on Wednesday. Here is his testimony in full:
