<!--Article Start--> <h3 style="text-align: justify">FIFA on Thursday banned for life Chuck Blazer, a central figure in the corruption scandal that has engulfed world football, for taking millions of dollars in bribes.</h3> <p style="text-align: justify">"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," said a statement announcing the ban from all football-related activities.</p> <p style="text-align: justify">"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."</p> <p style="text-align: justify">The one-time powerbroker of North American football is a former ally of FIFA leader Sepp Blatter who has agreed to step down because of controversy over US and Swiss investigations into the world body and World Cup tournaments.</p> <p style="text-align: justify">Blazer, 70, has given evidence to US authorities investigating football corruption and is gravely ill in a New York hospital suffering from cancer.</p> <p style="text-align: justify">Blazer has acknowledged to US investigators that he took more than $11 million in bribes from 2005 to 2010.</p> <p style="text-align: justify">Media reports say he gained substantially more during his time running the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football, or CONCACAF.</p> <p style="text-align: justify">Blazer was CONCACAF general secretary from 1990 until 2011 when he was forced to step down. He was also a FIFA executive committee member from 1996 to 2013 and a vice president of the US Soccer Federation.</p> <p style="text-align: justify">As part of his deal with the US authorities he has agreed not to oppose any ban imposed on him by FIFA or any other football governing body.</p> <p style="text-align: justify">Blazer has pleaded guilty to 10 counts, including racketeering, tax evasion, wire fraud and money laundering conspiracies.</p> <p style="text-align: justify">As a FIFA official he influenced the award of World Cup tournaments. And he has admitted to US investigators that he took bribes.</p> <p style="text-align: justify">As the powerbroker of US soccer he travelled by private jet, kept two multi-million-dollar apartments in New York -- one reportedly for the use of his cats -- and a home in the Bahamas.</p> <p style="text-align: justify">Behind his back, he was known as "Mr Ten Percent," a nod to the kickbacks on which he allegedly insisted.</p> <p style="text-align: justify"><a href="http://www.thehardtackle.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/04782892.jpg"><img class="alignnone wp-image-176522 size-large" src="http://www.thehardtackle.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/04782892-732x1024.jpg" alt="Chuck Blazer told US court of bribes for 1998, 2010 World Cups" width="732" height="1024" /></a></p> . <p style="text-align: justify">Now wheelchair-bound, he formally pleaded guilty at a closed-door court hearing in Brooklyn in November 2013 -- one of four people to plead guilty as part of the sweeping US investigation.</p> <p style="text-align: justify">Since then the US Justice Department has stunned FIFA by targeting a coterie of top officials from the Americas as part of the probe.</p> <p style="text-align: justify">Seven FIFA officials were detained in a raid on a Zurich hotel on the eve of a FIFA congress at which Blatter won reelection.</p> <p style="text-align: justify">The seven are now fighting extradition to the United States and are among 14 new figures facing charges as part of the same inquiry which snared Blazer.</p> <p style="text-align: justify">In parallel, Swiss authorities are investigating the attribution of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar. Amid corruption allegations, both countries have strongly denied any wrongdoing.</p> <p style="text-align: justify"><strong>By AFP</strong></p> <!--Article End-->