Exclusive: Attempt to exile whistleblower Blazer scuppered by lack of support

By Andrew Warshaw

May 28 – A bid to throw last year’s cash-for-votes whistleblower Chuck Blazer out of FIFA’s inner sanctum failed when not enough nations supported the move.

Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) delegates, furious at alleged persistent financial mismanagement by Blazer (pictured above) when he was general secretary of the region passed a motion in Budapest on Wednesday (May 23) calling for the burly American to be removed from the FIFA Executive Committee at the organisation’s annual congress two days later.

But the issue was totally ignored, leaving Blazer almost certain to be allowed to see out the remaining one year of his term at the top table of football’s world governing body after 16 years.

In what was widely construed as payback time for Blazer, an almost Shakespearean plot saw a majority of delegates at CONCACAF’s own regional congress turn on the bearded American lawyer after an independent audit of CONCACAF’s finances, conducted after Blazer stepped down as the body’s top administrator in December, disclosed that the confederation had failed to report tax returns over at least four years even though it is a non-profit body.

But although the mood was angry and vengeful, when it became clear that not enough support would have been forthcoming from other regions, no-one from CONCACAF stood up at the FIFA Congress to demand that Blazer’s case be added to the agenda.

CONCACAF sources have since told insideworldfootball that although a letter of intent was sent to FIFA, the Confederation would have needed three-quarters of FIFA’s 208 member nations to back their stance to kick out Blazer whose stunning revelations about bribery and corruption led to a raft of Caribbean members being sanctioned, FIFA senior vice president Jack Warner resigning and Mohamed Bin Hammam (pictured above, left), Asia’s most powerful administrator, being banned for life.

The result almost certainly means that unless he voluntarily resigns, Blazer – who stayed away from the CONCACAF Congress because of bronchitis – will be allowed to finish his Executive Committee term even though he no longer represents the Confederation.

That will infuriate the anti-Blazer lobby within CONCACAF which, despite the election of the highly respected Jeffrey Webb as its new President, shows little sign of the unity Webb so badly craves after the confederation was virtually brought to its knees by splits and factions.

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