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Chuck Blazer, the cat-apartment-owning Halloween costume enthusiast who used to be one of the key figures in U.S. soccer and a member of the FIFA Executive committee, has been banned for life by FIFA for transgressions that he committed while working for FIFA.
FIFA is a bastion of self-congratulations, and was in fine form in the release about Blazer's ban.
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. He was found guilty of violations of art. 13 (General rules of conduct), art. 15 (Loyalty), art. 16 (Confidentiality), art. 18 (Duty of disclosure, cooperation and reporting), art. 19 (Conflicts of interest), art. 20 (Offering and accepting gifts and other benefits) and art. 21 (Bribery and corruption) of the FIFA Code of Ethics.
In May 2013, the Ethics Committee had decided to provisionally suspend the investigation proceedings in relation to former FIFA Executive Committee member Chuck Blazer until the end of 2013 at the earliest.
Blazer squealed to the FBI when it became apparent that Blazer wished to avoid spending the rest of his life in prison. To be clear: FIFA banned Blazer using evidence obtained from the FBI's investigation into FIFA. John Grisham couldn't have made that up even if he was on opium.
Contact The18 Staff Writer Sam Klomhaus at Klomhaus@The18.com or follow him on Twitter @SamKlomhaus
