Mr 10 Percent: The Suburban Dad Who Fleeced Global Soccer

Summary

Podcast Summary: Chameleon

Episode: "Mr 10 Percent: The Suburban Dad Who Fleeced Global Soccer"

Host: Josh Dean | Producers: Campside Media / Audiochuck | Airdate: June 11, 2026

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Overview:

This episode of Chameleon shines a spotlight on Chuck Blazer, an outsized American sports executive who—despite humble, suburban beginnings—rose to astonishing heights of power within global soccer governance. Ultimately, Blazer’s greed, flamboyance, and insider access would make him the unlikely linchpin of the largest scandal and corruption probe in FIFA’s history. Host Josh Dean and guest reporter Ken Bensinger piece together the arc of Blazer’s career, from selling buttons and Frisbees, to becoming “Mr. 10%,” reaping millions in skims, bribes, and perks, all the while flying under the radar in suburban America—until his spectacular takedown as a government informant.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights:

1. Chuck Blazer’s Arrest and Cooperation with Authorities (01:38–03:13)

• Blazer—a "large and rumpled 66 year old who looked like an undercover Santa Claus”—was approached by IRS and FBI agents in New York (Trump Tower, 2011), who confronted him for 15 years of unpaid taxes.
• Notable quote:

  "He is telling them far more than they could ever possibly imagine about corruption in the sport.” – Josh Dean (03:13)

• Blazer quickly agreed to cooperate, launching a sweeping DOJ probe and leading to days of FBI interviews about the ‘rotten core’ of FIFA.

2. Blazer’s Profile: Larger-Than-Life Figure (05:05–07:16)

• A bon vivant, famous for his size, his parrot (Max), and his Santa costume at Christmas. Known as the "most famous, powerful American ever," who nobody recognized in the US.
• Notable quote:

  “He was among the 24 most powerful people inside of FIFA… and went on to become the principal and original cooperator with the Justice Department." – Josh Dean (05:48)

• Wore a wire for several years; crucial FBI asset from ~2012–2015.

3. The Historic Takedown of FIFA (07:16–08:53)

• In 2015, Blazer’s cooperation led directly to high-profile raids and arrests of 7 senior FIFA officials in Switzerland, exposing decades of racketeering, money laundering, and $150M in bribes.
• Notable moment (07:22):

  “Seven senior FIFA officials arrested at the crack of dawn… involving more than $150 million in bribes."

4. From Youth Soccer Dad to FIFA Power Broker (08:22–13:12)

• Blazer’s rise was meteoric: from lining fields for his daughter’s youth team and selling smiley face buttons, to Executive VP of US Soccer within six years.
• US soccer in the ‘80s was an ‘afterthought,’ making it possible for an outsider like Blazer to ascend so rapidly.
• Quote:

  “He didn't know anything about the game… but he does want to run the finances.” – Josh Dean (12:25)

5. The Power Structure and Vote-Buying of FIFA (16:01–19:27)

• Global soccer governance operated via one-country, one-vote—enabling small nations (particularly in CONCACAF) to wield disproportionate power if organized as voting blocs.
• Notable quote:

  “If you can get all these people to vote together, then the Caribbean becomes the power center…” – Josh Dean (18:37)

• This realization enabled Blazer and partner Jack Warner (Trinidad & Tobago head) to seize control of the region and, by extension, much of FIFA’s internal power.

6. ‘Mr. 10%’—The Contract That Changed Everything (19:28–21:10)

• Upon becoming Warner’s deputy, Blazer wrote himself a contract for 10% of all regional revenue—initially modest, but massively lucrative as TV/marketing deals expanded.
• Lavish lifestyle ensued: Trump Tower apartments (one for ‘cats’), yachts, first class travel.
• Quote:

  “He figured out a way to finesse those books to pay… a significant chunk of the rent of his apartment… $22,000 a month.” – Josh Dean (20:24)

7. The Mechanics of Soccer Graft (21:10–26:12)

• Bribe economy: TV rights, tournament bids, and ticketing were all corrupt revenue streams. Blazer/Warner could award contracts and votes for cash, including to decide World Cup hosts (e.g., bribes for South Africa, Russia, Qatar).
• Quote:

  “This was just naked, cartoony graft. It’s hard to hear these stories and not picture guys like Blazer as cartoon criminals…” – Narrator / Josh Dean (24:58)

8. Blazer’s Wealth, Secrecy, and Downfall (26:12–29:28)

• Blazer amassed tens of millions via official and under-the-table means, never paid taxes (“for 15 years”), and avoided putting assets in his own name.
• The IRS only uncovered the full trail by accident—an agent read a tip about Blazer’s luxury cars; this led to the prosecution’s breakthrough.
• Quote:

  “He made millions… never owned a home.” – Josh Dean (27:33)

9. The Crucial Role of Whistleblowers and Journalists (32:59–36:23)

• Blazer, falling out with Warner, morphed (for a moment) into a whistleblower, informing on rivals—but only after being cut out of deals.
• Journalist Andrew Jennings played a key role, providing FBI agents with leaked files about Blazer’s corrupt dealings (35:43).

10. The Curious Legacy: FIFA After Blazer (36:23–39:47)

• FIFA’s ostensible reforms under new president Gianni Infantino (2016– ) gave way to “a new, open era of cash-grabbing and autocratic influence.”
• Notable quote:

  “Now we're having World Cup in Saudi Arabia in 2034… carefully engineered as a way to make the Saudis happy and strip the rest of the world a chance to have any say…” – Josh Dean (38:00)

• Infantino’s pairing with Trump for US World Cup and introducing the (meaningless) Club World Cup—trophy now, per Trump’s wishes, sits in the White House (39:23).

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Memorable Moments and Quotes (with Timestamps):

• On Blazer’s cooperation:

  “He more or less immediately agrees to cooperate.” – Josh Dean (02:40)

• The inner circle of FIFA:

  “It's always the taxes.” – Josh Dean (01:38, 26:52)

• Blazer’s lifestyle:

  “[His] parrot was named Max and was considered a very ill-tempered animal and people were scared of it.” – Josh Dean (09:20)

• "Mr. 10%":

  “Blazer promptly wrote himself a self-dealing contract that paid him… 10% of all the revenues that came into the confederation.” – Josh Dean (19:28)

• On FIFA’s corruption:

  “This was just naked cartoony graft.” – Narrator (24:58)

• FIFA’s culture compared:

  “It probably didn't take some kind of genius to be able to take over the sport and squeeze all the money out of it because it was just ripe for the plucking.” – Josh Dean (25:25)

• Blazer’s interview as ‘whistleblower’:

  Interviewer: “Is FIFA inherently corrupt?” Blazer: “No, sir. I think individuals are.” (33:51)

• On Infantino’s ‘reforms’:

  “The Infantino era was about sidling up to incredibly wealthy, powerful, autocratic states… It was very open, in the light of day, kind of corruption.” – Josh Dean (37:07)

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Important Timeline & Timestamps:

• [01:38] Arrest and Cooperation: FBI approaches Blazer.
• [03:05] First Interviews: Blazer reveals immense, unexpected knowledge of FIFA corruption.
• [07:22] FIFA Raids/Ongoing Investigation: Senior FIFA arrests in Switzerland.
• [19:28] ‘Mr. 10%’ Contract: Blazer cements his wealth.
• [23:35] Bribed World Cup Votes: South Africa (2010), Russia (2018), Qatar, Morocco.
• [26:15] Blazer’s Earnings: Tens of millions, via salary and bribes.
• [29:32] The Breakthrough: IRS agent connects the dot from a media tip to Blazer’s assets.
• [30:12] Guilty Plea: Blazer admits to 10 charges, faces 75 years, pays $10M+ in back taxes; ultimately dies before testifying.
• [35:43] Andrew Jennings Role: Journalist’s leaks change the case.
• [37:07] FIFA’s ‘New Era’: Infantino’s leadership and ongoing opacity.
• [39:23] The Trump Trophy: Club World Cup trophy in the Oval Office.

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Final Reflection:

The story of Chuck Blazer is an assault on the stereotypes of sports officials and white-collar crime: here is a suburban dad and button salesman who, enabled by the chaotic and opaque world of international soccer, becomes an emblem of both the sport’s ascent in America and its spectacular fall from grace. Blazer’s life, driven by appetite—of the body, the ego, and the wallet—ultimately offers a cautionary parable: about trust, loopholes, and the endlessly creative art of the con.

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For more on Chameleon and updates on future episodes, visit Campside Media.

Transcript

[Josh Dean]

Since he got out, bad things keep happening.

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[Josh Dean]

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[Josh Dean]

Campsite Media

[Interviewee]

hello.

[Narrator / Josh Dean]

What is. What do you want me to say?

[Josh Dean]

Chameleon, Chameleon, Chameleon Weekly

[Narrator / Josh Dean]

Chuck Blazer was either going to or coming from dinner at a Manhattan steakhouse when it happened. Whichever it was, the large and rumpled 66 year old who looked like an undercover Santa Claus was on the sidewalk outside Trump Tower, where he had two apartments, when agents from the FBI and IRS approached and asked to speak with him. Blazer suggested that his girlfriend, a former soap actress, go upstairs and then agreed to meet the agents in the atrium of the towering glass apartment building on Fifth Avenue. Chuck Blazer to this point had managed to construct and lead one of the most outlandish lives in global sports. He had, through some combination of luck, opportunity and scheming, amassed tremendous power over American soccer, a power that he used in turn to amass a lavish lifestyle built in part on unpaid taxes and Amex points. And it's those taxes that got Blaser into this particular predicament right around Thanksgiving of 2011. It's always the taxes.

[Josh Dean]

And they say, you know, the look, buddy, you haven't paid taxes for many years and we know it. And you can sort of do it our way or the hard way, I guess, really? And he more or less immediately agrees to cooperate.

[Narrator / Josh Dean]

This is Ken Bensinger, a New York Times reporter who was at that time working for Buzzfeed Ken ultimately talked to the agents who put this offer on the table, an offer that would set in motion one of the most incredible unravelings in the history of sports.

[Josh Dean]

And within a week or two, he's sitting down for three straight days with the prosecutors talking about FIFA corruption.

[Narrator / Josh Dean]

Because this jolly gentleman, Chuck Blazer, knew a lot about the rotten core of FIFA, the global organization that rules soccer at its highest levels.

[Josh Dean]

And I think their heads are more or less exploding in their bodies because he's telling them far more than they could ever possibly imagine about corruption in the sport.

[Narrator / Josh Dean]

This is Chameleon, the weekly show about people who pretend to be something they aren't. And I'm Josh Dean. This week, the story of soccer's Falstaff Chuck Blazer, the man who took down the global soccer establishment and compiled $26 million worth of Amex points in the process. After the break, the terrific tale of Mr. 10%.

[Josh Dean]

Since he got out, bad things keep happening.

[Advertisement Voice]

Cape Fear, a new series is now stream on Apple tv. Why would I want to hurt you? Starring Academy Award winner Javier Bardem. Why? And Academy Award nominee Amy Adams.

[Josh Dean]

He's coming after my family,

[Advertisement Voice]

Kate Fear, now streaming on Apple tv.

[Apartments.com Advertiser]

Ever walk past a place for rent and wish you could just take a peek inside, maybe even explore the layout? Envision the natural light streaming through the windows or plan where your vinyl record collection would go. At apartments.com you can. With tools like their 3D virtual tours, you can see the exact unit you could be living in. Really envision yourself in your new home with apartments.com the place to find a place.

[Narrator / Josh Dean]

This is Chameleon, the weekly. The more I heard about Chuck Blazer, the more I could understand what pulled Ken Bensinger into the rabbit hole.

[Josh Dean]

Chuck Blazer was the most famous, powerful American ever to participate in global soccer governance. And also an incredibly comical, larger than life figure. A grossly obese man who liked to dress up as Santa Claus for Christmas, lived in a Trump Tower and was considered the ultimate bon vivant of the international sports set.

[Narrator / Josh Dean]

His reporting would become the centerpiece of an outstanding book about the FIFA soccer corruption case called Red Card.

[Josh Dean]

He was among the 24 most powerful people inside of FIFA, which governs global soccer and we learned later, also had the characteristic of being immensely corrupt and deeply ethically challenged on every level. And went on to become the principal and original cooperator with the Justice Department in this sprawling criminal investigation.

[Narrator / Josh Dean]

More specifically, a US Government led investigation of FIFA, the French acronym for the Federation Internationale de Football association, pardon the French, which oversees global soccer and includes 211 national federations. Every country that participates in international tournaments, the most famous of which is the World cup, is FIFA member of FIFA. And it had been an open secret for a long time that FIFA was run by extremely corrupt people, mostly, if not entirely men who took bribes in exchange for things like TV rights. The feds just couldn't penetrate that inner circle. Until someone with the IRS noticed that Chuck Blaser wasn't paying his taxes on anything.

[Josh Dean]

His cooperation was essential. He faced a tough reality and he chose to flip and participate and essentially rat out all of his soccer buddies. For several years he wore wires, he handed over documents, he went to meetings. He basically was an unpaid agent for the FBI for basically between, I would say, end of 2011, beginning of 2012, all the way up to about 2015,

[Narrator / Josh Dean]

when on May 27, at a luxurious hotel Baro Lock, this happened.

[Josh Dean]

Seven senior FIFA officials arrested at the

[Narrator / Josh Dean]

crack of dawn concerning allegations of fraud,

[Josh Dean]

racketeering and money laundering going back decades.

[Narrator / Josh Dean]

This is the result of a three year long FBI investigation of what's being

[Josh Dean]

called a rampant and deep rooted corruption

[Narrator / Josh Dean]

involving more than $150 million in bribes to the people who run the world's most popular and lucrative sports. Dudes in designer suits taken in handcuffs out of one of Switzerland's fanciest hotels with cameras rolling. The results of a multi year investigation led by the U.S. department of justice and announced by then Attorney General Loretta Lynch.

[Josh Dean]

We are here to announce the unsealing of charges and the arrests of individuals

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as part of our long running investigation

[Josh Dean]

into bribery and corruption in the world of organized soccer.

[Narrator / Josh Dean]

All made possible by this one bizarre man, Chuck Blazer. It's an amazing, stranger than fiction story on those facts alone, but you don't even know the half of it yet.

[Josh Dean]

This is a guy who had really no formal background in the sport. He was a huckster and a salesman from Queens who did get involved as an adult in youth soccer, like his daughter and his son playing on local parks. And he was out there in the morning lining the fields kind of thing. And in 10 years, he went from lining the fields at Ayso to being in a secret room in a bunker underneath FIFA's headquarters in Zurich, making decisions about the future of the sport over the world.

[Narrator / Josh Dean]

How exactly did this happen? It all starts with FIFA and how that opaque organization works.

[Josh Dean]

A remarkable characteristic about this giant thing, which is the world's most popular sporting enterprise, is that it's governed by people who got there through political Skills more than anything else, as opposed to merit.

[Narrator / Josh Dean]

Ken means you would think soccer's governing bodies would be run by the sharpest and most experienced soccer minds. Well, that depends where you're from.

[Josh Dean]

In a country like Brazil or Germany, the people who run soccer usually were professional players or professional coaches or professional sports administrators who'd work their way slowly and agonizingly up the ladder. But in the US it was possible to jump to the top extremely quickly because soccer, while becoming much more prominent now for decades, was kind of a tertiary or not even tertiary sport in the US it meant there was almost no public facing aspect to it at home. So Chuck Blazer, a man who was recognized wherever he went in Europe and in South America, could live a completely anonymous life in the US he was just this funny dude who rode around Central park on his mobility scooter with a parrot perched on his shoulder. If memory serves. The parrot was named Max and was considered a very ill tempered animal and people were scared of it. Employees at the soccer offices where he worked were scared of the bird, didn't want to get near it.

[Narrator / Josh Dean]

To be specific, it was a blue and yellow macaw, which, according to Blazer's longtime girlfriend, lived in a $150,000 glass and marble aviary in his office overlooking Central Park. They are beautiful birds from Central and South America and technically legal to own in the U.S. but poaching is a huge problem and chicks are often stolen out of nests in order to sell them into captivity. Anyway, how did this man who builds glass and marble aviators for his exotic birds ascend to the top of U.S. soccer?

[Josh Dean]

So Chuck Blazer is the guy who went to nyu, did grad school, sort of dropped out, studied accountancy, and maybe falls in the category of never did an honest day's work in his life, or at least not too many honest days work in his life. He just went from job to job and sold gee gaws and sold promotional items. You go to a sporting event and there's like a credit card company trying to get you to sign up. And if you sign up, you get like a free T shirt or a Frisbee or something.

[Narrator / Josh Dean]

Chuck was the guy who sold the Frisbees and T shirts for the credit card company to give away.

[Josh Dean]

That was one of his big things, was that kind of promotional item. The woman he married, her father owned a button manufacturing business. Like the kind of the button you would put like a pin on your shirt, like a political button. And he sort of took control of that, was involved in the Smiley face button trend of the late 70s or the 70s, which was a. Seems very quaint now, but that was a big deal for a while and he didn't invent it. Although he later claimed credit for inventing the smiley face button, all he did was make them. He printed a bunch of those buttons, made a lot of money doing it, and then screwed the brothers who invented the smiley face button because he had exclusive to sell only to them. And they later found out that he was secretly selling caseloads of the buttons out the back door to other distributors

[Narrator / Josh Dean]

at some point in the mid-70s. Amid all this success with promotional Frisbees and smiley face buttons, Chuck Blazer, at this point trim and handsome, with curly black hair and a thick mustache, more Tom Selleck than Santa Claus, moves to Westchester county, the affluent warren of suburbs just north of New York City.

[Josh Dean]

This is a time when there's this emergent soccer league in the US which is bringing in like aging superstars from

[Narrator / Josh Dean]

around the world, that being the North American Soccer League, or nasl.

[Josh Dean]

And people like Pele start playing late in their career in the US And Pele could actually fill Giant Stadium a few times to watch him play. There was a brief spurt of soccer mania in the late 70s, and that led to the growth of youth soccer in select communities around the US and one of them was Westchester County. Blazer gets swept up in it in the sense that his kids are playing. He doesn't know anything about the game. He doesn't really want to coach, but he does want to run the finances of it. And very quickly he moves up from, like, guy who drops his kids off and cuts up the oranges for halftime to running sort of the regional soccer group where he lives, and then somehow from there, by 1984, decides to run for executive vice president of the U.S. soccer Federation. I think he'd been involved in soccer for about five years at that point.

[Narrator / Josh Dean]

This is quite a leap, and I think speaks volumes about where soccer in America was in 1984. Less we need to do a national search of top candidates for this important role, and more, sure, if you want the gig, you can just have it.

[Josh Dean]

Speaking as a soccer dad whose son plays, you know, teenage level soccer, I've been involved longer than that, and I have moved nowhere within the soccer hierarchy in this country. But he did, in about six years, successfully was able to run and become the executive vice president of U.S. soccer. And that job was chiefly concerned with the international aspect of U.S. soccer, which meant the men's national team going around the world to play in international game.

[Narrator / Josh Dean]

This would be the US national team that is now very well known in the US the one that plays in World Cups, often with lots of hype, which people pay attention to for a few weeks every four years and which inevitably disappoints us all. Back then, in 1984, that team was an afterthought.

[Josh Dean]

No one cared about it in U.S. soccer. All they cared about was running youth soccer and running adult amateur leagues. So they were basically giving him what they thought was a garbage job because the US hadn't qualified for a World cup since 1950, and no one really thought we ever would again.

[Narrator / Josh Dean]

Blazer made a real impact. The US men's national team played two games between 1981 and 1983, the year before Blazer assumed his role. It played 19 games in the two years following his election. He also helped spearhead the effort to have the US bid to host the 1994 World cup, which would become a major turning point in American soccer.

[Josh Dean]

So Blazer got to go around the world and meet all these soccer heavies, and as the US Would go around and get its ass kicked by, like, Bermuda or something in regional soccer tournaments, and he got to meet these people, including his future partner in crime, Jack Warner.

[Narrator / Josh Dean]

Much more on Jack Warner very soon, but this first stint atop US Soccer was short for Blazer. Valuable, but short.

[Josh Dean]

He only had the job for two years, but it was enough of a taste to make him think, oh, wow, this is this whole world that no one in the US Soccer firmament is paying any attention to. And he parlayed his two years experience in that job into to running an upstart pro soccer league in the U.S.

[Narrator / Josh Dean]

the American Soccer League, or ASL, which aimed to be more fiscally responsible than the NASL, which spent big on major stars like Pele and then went bankrupt.

[Josh Dean]

He ran it as the commissioner and then went to run one of the teams in Florida, the Miami Sharks. In both cases, people later discovered that he somehow managed to take most of the money for himself. I think he paid himself a higher salary than the entire payroll of all the players on the team. These soccer leagues came and went and were total failures, but he had once again figured out how to make the most of it for himself.

[Narrator / Josh Dean]

A recurring theme in the Chuck Blazer

[Josh Dean]

story in this time period is when Blazer comes up with the idea of visiting his old buddy Jack Warner, who

[Narrator / Josh Dean]

is at that point only the head of the soccer federation for Trinidad and

[Josh Dean]

Tobago, convincing him to take control of the regional Confederation, concacaf.

[Narrator / Josh Dean]

To understand the importance of this moment, when this suburban soccer dad, best known for selling smiley face buttons convinces a diminutive teacher from Trinidad to run for a regional soccer job, you have to understand how FIFA works.

[Josh Dean]

Every single country with a national soccer team is a member. There's no extra power given to countries like Brazil, which have won more World Cups than anyone else. Or a country like India, the most populous in the world, which is pretty lousy at soccer but is very good at producing human beings. Both those countries have the same power as Trinidad and Tobago. And it turns out that in practice, the real power. And it's important to remember the votes are used for things like determining who the FIFA president is, where the World cup will be cited. So there's a lot of power in those votes. And what evolves over time is that the most power goes to people who can create voting blocs.

[Narrator / Josh Dean]

This is worth pausing on. South America, as a continent is a soccer power. Its federation includes 11 nations and is called CONMEBOL. Three of those countries have won multiple World Cups. Brazil, which has won the most ever, plus Uruguay and Argentina. You would think that any one of those nations, let alone the collective, would have far more power than a collective. That includes the U.S. canada, and Mexico, plus Central America and a bunch of tiny islands, none of which have won a World Cup. But Concacaf, as the region is known, has 41 members, most of them tiny Caribbean islands. The right leader who can whip most, if not all, those island votes can swing FIFA elections.

[Josh Dean]

So in and itself, Trinidad, a pretty small country, has as much voting power as Brazil. But on top of that, if you are the president of the Trinidad and Tobago soccer federation and you're politically astute and can get other countries to vote as a bloc with you, then you actually could have a lot more power than a country like Italy or Spain. So it really rewards those who are politically astute rather than people who are good at governance or people who are attuned to the economics of the sport.

[Narrator / Josh Dean]

This is what Chuck Blazer recognized, that running CONCACAF would bring tremendous power. But he, as a white American, was never going to get elected. He needed an island partner from the Caribbean who could sway the Guadalupes and Antiguas. And that's where Jack Warner came in.

[Josh Dean]

Blazer thought of it and convinced Warner to go for it and explained to Warner how to do it, which was that in North America, Central America, and the Caribbean, Mexico had been for a very long time the powerhouse. But what Blaser saw was that there's all these countries in The Caribbean, they don't really care very much about soccer, but there's a lot of them. And they don't have any particular affinity for Mexico, but they do have affinity for other Caribbean countries. So the thinking was, if you can get all these people to vote together, then the Caribbean becomes the power center in this region rather than Mexico or Central America. And that's what happened. Warner and Blaser made that work. That ticket won. Warner took over the confederation and then promptly named Chuck Blazer to be his right hand man and delegated to him all the financial powers of the confederation. And Blazer ran with that.

[Narrator / Josh Dean]

Boy, did he.

[Josh Dean]

Blazer promptly wrote himself a self dealing contract that paid him rather than a salary for the work. It paid him 10% of all the revenues that came into the confederation. And that contract earned him the nickname Mr. 10%. And the thing about 10% early on was it was a bad deal for Blazer because there was very little money coming in.

[Narrator / Josh Dean]

It was an investment in his future, only a good deal if you had the vision to see what CONCACAF and FIFA could become.

[Josh Dean]

He didn't relinquish it for 21 years. I think he stayed in that job.

[Narrator / Josh Dean]

The rise and riches of Mr. 10% after the break, You're listening to Chameleon, the weekly. It wasn't just the 10% of all CONCACAF revenues that Chuck Blaser directed to himself via a rule he wrote as the head of the region's finances. Blaser maximized the sweet, sweet perks too.

[Josh Dean]

He figured out a way to finesse those books to pay not all, but a significant chunk of the rent of

[Narrator / Josh Dean]

his apartment, the Trump Tower apartment, which by the time of his arrest was renting for $22,000 a month.

[Josh Dean]

And he had sort of exclusive access to it. He also eventually grew the apartment by getting the apartment next door to it. There is a popular story that's gone around that it was for his cats. It's not really true.

[Narrator / Josh Dean]

The truth is he rented it for visiting dignitaries like Jack Warner. But over time, Warner decided he preferred fancy hotels to slumming it in a Trump Tower one bedroom.

[Josh Dean]

And it fell into disuse and the cats began to adopt the apartment as the place they like to hang out. You can sort of imagine cat hair everywhere and a place that no one went into except for the cats.

[Narrator / Josh Dean]

So Chuck Blazer maxed out his perks. First class travel, fancy dinners, a vintage Mercedes, all of it on FIFA's dime. But it was the 10% over time that really made him rich. That part Just required a bit more patience. When Blazer and Warner ascended to the leadership of concacaf, the region had no lucrative TV deals or tournaments to exploit. Tournaments and TV being the two most valuable opportunities in most regions.

[Josh Dean]

So Blazer set himself to getting as many TV deals and as much money to come in as possible. Pretty soon, he was getting multimillion dollar paydays.

[Narrator / Josh Dean]

Warner and Blaser also worked hard to gain power in Zurich. At FIFA headquarters, more power meant more influence, which meant more opportunities.

[Josh Dean]

They end up, both of them on the executive committee, which is this committee of 24 people who essentially make all the major votes. They were in a position to start taking handouts, kickbacks, and bribes in order for them to vote certain ways on this committee. So you have a corrupt confederation run by Blazer and Warner, and you have Blazer and Warner sitting at the table for the biggest decisions in the sport in a room that turns out almost everyone is corrupt as well.

[Narrator / Josh Dean]

It wasn't just the World cup that FIFA officials cashed in on.

[Josh Dean]

In Latin America, you have the Copa America and the Copa Libertadores. In Europe, you have the Champions League. And all these things just become money makers for people who are willing to take money and are the table. And by the time Warner and Blazer enter the scene, this is already becoming a pretty mature market. The corruption window at the FIFA bank is wide open, and they're just getting in line like everybody else. They controlled the rights to all the international tournaments in the CONCACAF region. So any tournaments in those regions, they could almost unilaterally decide who could be awarded the rights and what TV networks could buy the rights and how those deals could be structured. They also, incidentally, could control ticketing to all that, which is a side hustle. Blazer, in particular, sat on the TV committee of FIFA, so he was intensely involved in making those decisions. And those were tremendous opportunities to basically look for Grafton to get bribes. They also were two of the 24 votes to determine where world cops were and could collect bribes for that. And they sure enough did.

[Narrator / Josh Dean]

In 2015, when the FIFA raids went down, the DOJ presented evidence that bribes were offered for votes in favor of Russia and Qatar, as well as Morocco, which didn't ultimately even get a World Cup.

[Josh Dean]

South Africa did pay successfully bribes to Jack Warner and Chuck Blazer to get the 2010 World Cup.

[Narrator / Josh Dean]

It's also likely, but not proven that Blazer took bribes from Russia, which pulled off what then appeared to be a huge upset to win the vote and host the 2018 World Cup. Russia was decidedly not the favorite Most people thought the cup would go to Australia or the usa.

[Josh Dean]

So it's safe to say that we have decades of World Cups that were bought. What we do know is that he was courted very heavily by Russia. And indeed Blazer had a very colorful blog he kept. I think it was like Travels with Chuck Blazer and Friends or something. He would just travel around the world and visually name drop all the important people he got to hang out with.

[Narrator / Josh Dean]

The blog is still out there if you're curious. Chuckblazer.blogspot.com there's pictures of him on an

[Josh Dean]

airplane with Nelson Mandela.

[Narrator / Josh Dean]

That one is actually the blog's banner, Chuck in a pink polo that accentuates his giant belly next to Mandela, who is smiling and holding what appears to be a cocktail. It could also be water and like

[Josh Dean]

hanging out with Prince William. There's a long section of photos of him yucking it up with Vladimir Putin in Moscow. Other guys on the chief executive committee got other goodies from them. It was reported that the Belgian, I think, member of the executive committee, got a Picasso painting that may or may not have been stolen from the Hermitage in exchange for his vote.

[Narrator / Josh Dean]

This was just naked cartoony graft. It's hard to hear these stories and not picture guys like Blaser as cartoon criminals wearing black and white striped shirts and black eye masks with sacks of cash slung over their shoulders. It all begs the question, was this a long game? Did Chuck Blazer see an opportunity to step into the void of a fast rising sport and enrich himself way back in the 1980s? Or was this man just opportunistic and lucky?

[Josh Dean]

I think he was clever by all accounts. He was a smart guy and he was gregarious and people liked to be around him. Even though he could at times be a bit condescending and cruel, he definitely built loyalty among those around him. He does have some acumen, but I think it's also a testament to basically what a band of clowns and idiots were running world soccer for a long time, that it probably didn't take some kind of genius to be able to take over the sport and squeeze all the money out of it because it was just ripe for the plucking. His brilliance was in seeing that opportunity. This is a guy who famously pissed off his colleagues because he would spend half the day with four computer screens up day trading stocks rather than actually minding the needs of soccer. He probably wasn't trading on legit thing. He was trading on the broken dreams of soccer fans around the world.

[Narrator / Josh Dean]

So how much money did Chuck Blaser make?

[Josh Dean]

I think the highest payday just from his 10% contract was around $6 million. But then he was also getting all these bribes for other things, right? That was quote, unquote, legit money because it was part of a contract, even though it was a self dealing contract that wouldn't pass any kind of ethical muster and getting free use of all kinds of things that he really should have been paying for himself. A big Hummer vehicle. He didn't pay for apartments in Miami and the Bahamas that he had exclusive use of. So there's all kinds of freebies that he should have at least been tax taxed on. But of course he never paid taxes. So I think it's safe to say we're in the tens of millions of money that he was able to personally make off the sport over the years.

[Narrator / Josh Dean]

As I said at the top, it was those pesky taxes ultimately that led to Blazer's demise.

[Josh Dean]

It turns out if you don't file taxes at all for long enough, the IRS kind of thinks maybe you're dead and they stop asking questions. So he didn't pay taxes for 15 years. He was so worried about paying taxes or getting caught that he was famous for going to extreme lengths to avoid putting his name on any kind of documents that could tie him to having any money.

[Narrator / Josh Dean]

Money like Chuck was a big gambler. Probably not a surprising detail to hear at this point. He loved the tables and slots of Vegas in Atlantic City and would, given his druthers, have also loved the perks of a casino loyalty card. Hotel rooms, cocktails, buffets.

[Josh Dean]

It's the kind of thing that Chuck Blazer would love. A free hotel room or a free steak. But he never would join those because he was scared it would connect him to some kind of a ledger that the IRS could possibly see. So he did everything he could to avoid ever having his name on any assets. And this is a man who made millions of dollars and never owned a home. But the IRS had the magic power of being able to look into tax records in a way that the FBI cannot. The DOJ had opened an investigation into FIFA corruption in 2010 based on a couple tips they got, and for a year was spinning their wheels, getting nothing because they couldn't get anyone to cooperate with them. And it was clear to them that they were going to need some kind of cooperator to crack this case.

[Narrator / Josh Dean]

They've even kicked the tires on Chuck Blazer.

[Josh Dean]

The FBI agent who was running the case had in fact had lunch with Chuck Blazer and didn't see any way to get him to cooperate. And then, by a happy coincidence, an IRS agent all the way across the country in Orange County, California, read, I think a Reuters story or something that had made some comment about Chuck Blazer having all these fancy vehicles and things that seemed to be things he owned but maybe weren't in his name.

[Narrator / Josh Dean]

What a series of random events. The one IRS agent who truly loves soccer happens to see these fairly niche stories that mention Chuck Blazer's cars. And the seemingly impenetrable box has a crack.

[Josh Dean]

He thought, well, has Chuck Blazer declared these assets? Has he paid taxes on this fancy Mercedes that he's got stored in a garage in Zurich, et cetera. And he opened it up, and lo and behold, there was no record of any payment for all these years. And he thought, well, bingo. This is like a gold mine. Within a few months, he's now inserted himself into the DOJ case. He is leading the case. He's got some really innovative ideas about how to prosecute the case beyond Chuck Blazer and what kind of laws they can possibly use to guide the case, but also has a secret weapon, which is he thinks he can get a cooperator.

[Narrator / Josh Dean]

The agent goes to the DOJ with this case on a platter.

[Josh Dean]

Hey, guess what? Chuck Blazer never paid his taxes. But he gets him to jump through the hoops, and he reveals this, and they're really excited.

[Narrator / Josh Dean]

This is what leads to the confrontation outside Trump Tower. Chuck Blazer was the skeleton key that unlocked the whole operation.

[Josh Dean]

If Chuck Blazer doesn't get involved, it's very hard to see how they ever get any traction. They were extremely lucky in finding an American who, because he was American and he happened to be in New York, was right smack in their jurisdiction and also was positioned to know an incredible amount about the corruption of the sport. And he not only informed them and wore a wire for them and all that, but he also helped them develop leads onto other cooperators.

[Narrator / Josh Dean]

In 2013, Blazer, then 68, pled guilty to 10 charges, including bribery, tax evasion, and money laundering. He faced a maximum term of 75 years, but was given immunity from prosecution in exchange for his cooperation. He also agreed to pay more than $10 million in back taxes.

[Josh Dean]

The goal was for him to help them continue to develop the case and ultimately to probably be a star witness at trial. And he would have been a compelling witness because he's American and because he's charming and a great storyteller and would have charmed a jury. But in the course of this, he develops pretty serious colon cancer and he's going through treatment and getting progressively worse and having a comorbidity of pretty severe obesity and, and certainly some blood pressure issues and other stuff. He's really struggling with the disease. He's going in and out of the hospital and ultimately he dies before he can never testify in the case.

[Narrator / Josh Dean]

That was in July of 2017. The New York Times obituary called him a, quote, Falstaffian figure and said that, quote, Mr. Blazer was a large man with voracious appetites, not all of them in accordance with the law. Here's how Fox Sports summed up his end. The eccentric bon vivant who once strode across the global stage being flattered by sport and political leaders eager to capture his World cup hosting vote, died in disgrace on Wednesday at age 72. It goes on, however much Blazer elevated the status and wealth of soccer in the North America over several decades, any achievements were polluted by the ravenous appetites of Mr. 10% to seek bribes and siphon cash from deals into his personal account. The co writer of the New York Times obituary, longtime soccer writer Jerry Longman, was the last reporter to speak with Blaser after he just showed up at his Manhattan hospital bedside and had a short exchange. According to Longman, Blazer simply mouthed the words, I can't talk. Ken Bensinger tried many times to speak with Blazer over the years and reached him only once by phone. He declined to be interviewed. Ken didn't know at the time that Blazer was cooperating with the FBI case, or as Ken put it before the IRS got their hands around his neck. But that's obviously why he wasn't talking. Ken had some reason for optimism because right before that, Blazer had done something rare and spoke into the media. This was in the wake of a different scandal at FIFA when it came out that none other than Jack Warner and Mohammed bin Haman, a Qatari who was also on the executive committee, had been handing out manila envelopes of cash to members of the Caribbean FA during some annual meetings. That cash was an exchange for votes for Ben Haman, who was running against Sepp Blatter for the FIFA presidency. The source who reported those bribes to Blatter, Chuck Blazer.

[Josh Dean]

He's giving interviews and in fact, briefly has somehow positioned himself to be some kind of a whistleblower and some kind of a positive figure in the sport, which is highly ironic. And I think the reporters who wrote those stories later felt pretty embarrassed about them.

[Narrator / Josh Dean]

As an AP story put It Blazer seems an unlikely choice to spark the worst crisis in FIFA's 107 year history. But according to Ken, he'd grown frustrated with Warner, who started to cut him out of deals. So he decided to curry favor with Blatter by ratting out his former partner. Warner resigned. His replacement attempted to fire Blazer, and FIFA ultimately blocked that move. Blazer survived to fight on and take credit. That July in 2011, a reporter from Sky News caught Blaser outside Trump Tower with a white van that carried his mobility scooter visible behind him. Is FIFA inherently corrupt?

[Interviewee]

No, sir.

[Narrator / Josh Dean]

No.

[Interviewee]

I think individuals are.

[Narrator / Josh Dean]

Okay. What can be done to clean up FIFA?

[Interviewee]

What I did, and that is to turn around and do expose it where it exists and have it go through a proper legal process where it is vetted and decisions are taken to ultimately to punish those who have transgressed.

[Narrator / Josh Dean]

Blazer expressed admiration, pride in the whistleblower who'd first exposed the alleged bribes to him, then took this question about his longtime sidekick and what's the future for

[Josh Dean]

Jack Warner in concacaf?

[Interviewee]

For me, based on the evidence that I've seen, I don't think there is one.

[Narrator / Josh Dean]

And how about your personality, personal relationship with Jack Horn?

[Interviewee]

It's obviously been broken.

[Narrator / Josh Dean]

Okay. So do you think he feels a sense of betrayal?

[Interviewee]

I feel betrayed. Based on what he the risk and danger he put our members to. To expose them to this sort of situation where they were in jeopardy by accepting the gifts, I think is unconscionable.

[Narrator / Josh Dean]

It is quite something to watch in hindsight, to listen to Chuck Blaser on a high horse expressing dismay at the very thought of a FIFA official taking bribes. One month later, he'd be at the center of an investigation himself. Blazer's moment in the sun during his falling out with Warner also caught the attention of a dogged British investigative journalist named Andrew Jennings. Jennings had been digging into FIFA's dirt for many years. By the time Blazer busted into view, he managed to get his hands on some leaked files that exposed Blazer's own graft. It was Jennings work, it turns out, that led to the stories that caught that IRS agent's eye. Here's how Jennings explained it to a Senate subcommittee investigating U.S. soccer's role in all this. Back in 2015, as voiced by a British actor, Jennings himself passed away in 2022.

[Andrew Jennings]

I was invited to meet FBI special agents in London. Their business cards said organized crime. In August 2011. I gave them financial and other documents that America's Chuck Blazer hid from the Fans and the public. My source obtained them from the archives of CONCACAF, the regional body of 35 footballing nations, including the USA. It took the FBI and the IRS a few weeks to check out the information I gave them. They arrested Chuck Blazer. He immediately turned informant. And FIFA has imploded. FIFA is now a smelly shell.

[Narrator / Josh Dean]

I mean, not exactly true. Sepp Blatter, for instance, was never charged, but he did step down, agreed to

[Josh Dean]

resign and banned from the sport for four or five years. And then the generation of people who were expected to be his successors were also either charged in the case or otherwise implicated. And it led in 2016 to the election of a new president who had never served in FIFA, who had served in UEFA, which is the European soccer confederation that overse the Champions League. He wasn't even the number one there. The number one had been implicated in possible corruption with Blatter, and so he couldn't run either. So no one knew who this guy was, and he seemed unimportant. But he sidled in and said, I'm going to clean up soccer.

[Narrator / Josh Dean]

He was an Italian guy named Gianni

[Josh Dean]

Infantino, and he came in promising to clean it up and did all these reforms. And it turned out that he just kind of found new ways to corrupt the sport that were different than the way the bladder did. And if Bladder's era was marked by manila envelopes full of cash and secret bribes and people going to their hotel suite and finding Rolexes on the bed, the Infantino era was about sidling up to incredibly wealthy, powerful, autocratic states like Russia and Qatar and Saudi Arabia and squeezing as much money out of them as possible. It was very open in the light of day kind of corruption, which seems to be the trend in the world right now.

[Narrator / Josh Dean]

And as the head of FIFA in this new era, emerging from the stain of a global scandal, Infantino has consolidated power, eliminated transparency and decreased the power of the executive council.

[Josh Dean]

So he sort of stands atop untouched. The press is basically excommunicated from the sport. There's no attempt at any kind of transparency. And now we're having World cup in Saudi Arabia in 2034. And the whole thing was really carefully engineered as a sort of way to make the Saudis happy and strip the rest of the world a chance to have any say in the matter. Now he spends enormous amount of time hanging out with Trump because the World Cup's coming to the US and so he wants to sidle up with the most powerful person here as well.

[Narrator / Josh Dean]

Last May, Infantino went to the White house to meet with Trump to talk about the World cup and also to introduce his latest cash grab, the Club World Cup, a mostly meaningless tournament of top club teams that was to be held during the short summer professional break, when players would much rather be on vacation than than playing meaningless games in Charlotte and Cincinnati and Nashville during the hottest and most humid months of the US Summer, Infantino came to the White House bearing gifts. Sort of.

[Josh Dean]

Infantino showed up with a big golden trophy, which was not for the World cup but for the Club World cup, which is a new tournament that he invented which tried to squeeze more money out of the sport and piss off all the regional people.

[Narrator / Josh Dean]

The trophy, like the tournament, was brand new. It had no history. I'm pretty sure Infantino brought it more to show it off in advance of handing it over to whichever club won the tourney.

[Josh Dean]

But Trump loved the trophy and has kept it in the Oval Office and it sits there. He just loves how golden it is. And so if you look at different Trump pressers, you'll often see the Club World cup trophy sitting there in the White House for no good reason. I think Trump will not want to ever give that beautiful trophy away.

[Narrator / Josh Dean]

Chameleon is a production of Campside Media and Audio Chuck. It's written and hosted by me, Josh Dean and produced by Joe Barrett. Our Associate producer is Emma Simonoff. Sound design and mix by Blake Rook and Tiffany Dimmack. Theme music by Ewan Leitramuin and Mark McAdam. Our production manager is Ashley Warren. Campside's executive producers are Vanessa Grigoriadis, Matt Sher and me, Josh Dean. And finally, if I can ask a few favors before sending you on your way today, please rate, follow and review Chameleon on your favorite podcast platforms to help spread the word. I know everyone says this, but it's true. Ratings and reviews really do help, and if you have any feedback, tips or story ideas, you can email [e-mail] or leave us a message at a special number We've set up, 201-743-8368 dial +1 from outside North America. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next week.

[Josh Dean]

I think Chuck would approve.