Chuck Blazer, an executive committee member of Fifa, football’s world governing body, may have acted unlawfully over a media and sponsorship rights agreement involving Concacaf, according to lawyers representing the organisation that runs football in North America, Central America and the Caribbean.
Blazer, a former general secretary of Concacaf, last week suggested he would pursue unpaid commissions of $4 million (€3.1 million) to $5 million due to him from the confederation for helping it secure television and sponsorship deals. Blazer, via his company Sportvertising, brokered the deals for Concacaf under an agreement with the confederation’s former president, Jack Warner. Warner stepped down as president last June after being suspended by Fifa pending the outcome of an ethics investigation into financial incentives offered to members of the Caribbean Football Union.
UK public-service broadcaster BBC has reported the contents of a memo from Concacaf’s lawyers, King & Spalding, which suggests the confederation could challenge a claim by Blazer for the unpaid commissions. The memo advised Concacaf that the Blazer-Warner deal may have been done in violation of their “fiduciary duties to Concacaf.”
Warner has told BBC Sport: “At no point have I ever acted fraudulently with Mr. Blazer nor have I ever knowingly violated my duties to Concacaf.”
The memo said Blazer was paid a “basic monthly fee” of at least $10,000 (€7,700) under the deal with Concacaf president Warner, struck in 1994. The deal granted commissions of 10 per cent on media and sponsorship deals negotiated by Blazer.