Former top FIFA official Charles “Chuck” Blazer admitted in 2013 to taking bribes in connection with selecting the World Cup hosts and broadcast rights for other soccer tournaments, helping to form the backbone of the U.S. criminal case filed last week against senior officials of the world’s top governing body for soccer.
“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,” Mr. Blazer told a U.S. judge in Brooklyn, according to a transcript of the November 2013 plea hearing which was unsealed on Wednesday.
