New York, According to judicial sources, a former director of FIFA was brought in to trial by a New York court. Sources tell us that he confessed that he had accepted bribes in exchange for selecting the sites of the World Cup in 1998 and 2010.
A closed court testimony of former sports director Charles Gordon Blazer was released on Wednesday. But some parts of it were redacted by prosecutors to preserve the confidentiality of their current investigation into corruption within FIFA .
“Chuck” Blazer was the general secretary of football’s North and Central American and Caribbean region (or CONCACAF) from 1990-2011 and served on FIFA’s executive committee from 1997-2013. He was found guilty two years ago on several charges, including racketeering.
In his testimony, Blazer admitted that both he and others had taken a series of bribes starting in 1992 in exchange for deciding on the site of the World Cup in 1998 (which was played in France) and also in 2010, when South Africa beat out Morocco for the football championship.
In the case of the 2010 World Cup, Blazer claimed that the bribes were accepted by him and also by “other” members of FIFA’s executive committee, with the aim of ensuring that South Africa was selected to host the tourney.
