Speaker 1: I want you to picture something. Imagine a child somewhere
Speaker 1: anywhere in the world playing soccer. What do you see?
Speaker 1: A girl running drills on a grass soccer pitch, a
Speaker 1: boy and his friend kicking a ball around an alleyway,
Speaker 1: or having a game on a dirty, dusty lot. What
Speaker 1: you probably didn't imagine are men in suits handing out
Speaker 1: bribes in the form of envelopes full of cash. And
Speaker 1: why would you That has nothing to do with the game, right,
Speaker 1: But it does, And that's what this story is all about.
Speaker 1: The story of soccer, or football, as most of the
Speaker 1: world knows it is one of contradictions. There is the
Speaker 1: pure joy of the game, the beautiful game, the ballet
Speaker 1: of the masses that has made soccer a truly global
Speaker 1: sport with billions of fans. And then there are those men,
Speaker 1: and they were all men. They're the ones behind the
Speaker 1: World Cup, soccer's ultimate contest. They are the lords of soccer,
Speaker 1: and they've pocketed millions of dollars while failing to live
Speaker 1: up to the basic standards of the game itself. This
Speaker 1: is the story of how their agreed finally caught up
Speaker 1: with him. Yeah, it's it's ultimate game. Is doing a
Speaker 1: really excellent job. Playing fair may have cost Australia a
Speaker 1: chance to host the World Cup. Crisis of corruption on
Speaker 1: full display for the world. The game was hijack. Keith's
Speaker 1: alleged tradition of bribery is taking a real human toll.
Speaker 1: I'm very proud of our accomplishments. I'm Connor Powell. This
Speaker 1: is episode one The Inside Man. It's a brisk November
Speaker 1: evening in the year two thousand and eleven. An electric
Speaker 1: scooter rolls slowly across the pink and rose colored marble
Speaker 1: lobby of the fifty eight story Trump Tower in downtown Manhattan.
Speaker 1: The man on the scooter is Chuck Blazer. He's a
Speaker 1: rare American on FIFA's Executive Committee for nearly twenty years.
Speaker 1: He's traveled the world by private jet, stayed in five
Speaker 1: star hotels, and rubbed elbows with a host of celebrities,
Speaker 1: sports stars, and world leaders. On this crisp Autumn night, Blazer,
Speaker 1: with a head of hair and beard as bushy and
Speaker 1: white as Santa Clauss, is making his way to Uncle Jack's,
Speaker 1: a posh New York steakhouse on the West Side. He's
Speaker 1: joined by friends, including the woman he's dating the former
Speaker 1: soap opera actress Marylynn Blanks. Because of his weight, which
Speaker 1: has balloon to more than four hundred pounds, he relies
Speaker 1: on a mobility scooter for assistants. Like many FIFA executives,
Speaker 1: Blazers now in restaurants around the world for spending thousands
Speaker 1: of dollars on food, alcohol, and pretty much whatever the
Speaker 1: hell he wanted. In New York, Blazer was known as
Speaker 1: much for his love of strip clubs as he was
Speaker 1: for his love of Max, his blue and gold pet parrot.
Speaker 1: Max was regularly seen around town sitting on Blazer's shoulder.
Speaker 1: On this fateful night, Max the parrot was left upstairs
Speaker 1: in one of Blazers too yes to luxury Trump Tower apartments. Combined,
Speaker 1: they cost nearly two thousand dollars a month. One of
Speaker 1: the apartments was just for his cats, who apparently paid
Speaker 1: a lot, and so we're rewarded with a residence of
Speaker 1: their own. You might be wondering, like I did, how
Speaker 1: this morbidly obese, clearly eccentric American sports marketing executive from Queens,
Speaker 1: New York ended up on soccer's international governing council. You
Speaker 1: might also asked, how can he afford such luxuries like
Speaker 1: two penthouse apartments in downtown Manhattan. The federal agents, one
Speaker 1: from the Internal Revenue Service and the other from the
Speaker 1: Federal Bureau of Investigation, have been wondering the same thing.
Speaker 1: They were waiting for Blazer in the atrium of Trump
Speaker 1: Tower that very night. Looking every bit the part of
Speaker 1: Gemen and their conservative business suits, they approached the surprise
Speaker 1: Blazer as he and his friends were leaving the building
Speaker 1: through its obnoxious gold awning entrance on East fifty six Street.
Speaker 1: Steve Berryman of the i r S and Jared Randall
Speaker 1: of the FBI introduced themselves. They told Blazer they were
Speaker 1: investigating corruption in international soccer and especially at FIFA. Blazer froze,
Speaker 1: his face turned white. They informed them the I r
Speaker 1: S couldn't find any records of him paying US taxes
Speaker 1: for years now. Meeting outside of the glitsee Trump Tower
Speaker 1: would have been an awkward place to cry poverty, and anyways,
Speaker 1: Blazer was too proud of his extravagant life that he
Speaker 1: had built to pretend it didn't exist. Blazer always knew
Speaker 1: this day might come. He was always really fundamentally insecure.
Speaker 1: That's Mary Pappenfuss. She co wrote the book about Blazer
Speaker 1: called American Huckster. How Chuck Blazer got rich from and
Speaker 1: sold out the most powerful cabal in world sports. And
Speaker 1: he told mary Lynn that he was afraid people are
Speaker 1: going to finally find out who he was. And she said,
Speaker 1: who's that? And he said, just a fat crook from Queens.
Speaker 1: And I think that was his self image. He was
Speaker 1: a fat crook from Queens. He's gonna grab whatever he
Speaker 1: could when he could just gonna, you know, go to
Speaker 1: the wall and maybe die before anyone caught him. Berryman
Speaker 1: handed Blazer a white legal document. The subpoena ordered him
Speaker 1: to turn over all of his financial records. Blazer was
Speaker 1: facing at least thirty years in jail just for tax
Speaker 1: evasion and more many more. If the rumors of fraud,
Speaker 1: money laundering, racketeering that swirled around his time at FIFA
Speaker 1: we're true. That's why the FBI was there. But Randall
Speaker 1: and the FBI worn't after just Blazer. They had much
Speaker 1: bigger designs. So they made him an offer he couldn't refuse.
Speaker 1: It was maybe a thirty forty minute meeting and they said,
Speaker 1: we can arrest you right now or you can wear
Speaker 1: a wire, And he said, I'll wear a wire. In
Speaker 1: a heartbeat, FIFA's extraordinary greed was about to catch up
Speaker 1: with them. Blazer was just a vulnerable link in a
Speaker 1: corrupt chain, a pressure point the FBI and I r
Speaker 1: s could use to expose the wider fraud they had
Speaker 1: suspected for years. For decades, the rules of the game
Speaker 1: had been rigged by FIFA. For FIFA, maybe it was inevitable,
Speaker 1: given the organization's history of playing footsie with murderous dictators
Speaker 1: and shady oligarchs. So let me take you back to
Speaker 1: the beginning of two thousand and eleven when it all
Speaker 1: really began to unravel for Blazer and ultimately for FIFA itself.
Speaker 1: It started when Blazer's longtime soccer partner, Jack Warner, was
Speaker 1: caught with envelopes full of cash trying to buy FIFA's
Speaker 1: presidential election. But before we go too deep into our story,
Speaker 1: let me first explain what FIFA is besides the letters
Speaker 1: you see printed on official soccer balls. The Federation International
Speaker 1: Day Football Association was founded in in Paris. It runs
Speaker 1: international soccer, the World Cup, the Women's World Cup, and
Speaker 1: a host of other smaller tournaments. Collectively, these games are
Speaker 1: watched by more than four billion people. That's more than
Speaker 1: half the planet. No surprise, then, that FIFA pulls in
Speaker 1: billions of dollars each year, and by these measures it's
Speaker 1: been a great success. FIFA is also an epic failure,
Speaker 1: a testament to greed. There's long been talk of widespread corruption,
Speaker 1: a rot at the highest levels of the organization. In
Speaker 1: two thousand and fifteen, two other organizations with acronyms you
Speaker 1: already know, the FBI and the i r S, arrested
Speaker 1: more than a dozen former in current FIFA members on
Speaker 1: charges of bribery, fraud, and money laundry. These arrests, many
Speaker 1: of which can be traced back to that chilly fall
Speaker 1: meeting with Blazer, rip back the curtain of institutional rot
Speaker 1: and dirty dealings of an organization operating completely out of bounds.
Speaker 1: Even over the noise of the TV, Marylynn Blanks could
Speaker 1: hear the anger and her boyfriend, Chuck Blazer's voice as
Speaker 1: he talked on the phone with a soccer official from
Speaker 1: the Bahamas. Blazer's TV was always on and always loud.
Speaker 1: It was a lot like Blazer himself, so when he
Speaker 1: threw his phone across the penthouse bedroom. Blanks knew whatever
Speaker 1: was wrong must be bad, and it was. You see,
Speaker 1: before he agreed to be a snitch for the US government,
Speaker 1: Blazer was a reluctant whistleblower. I mean, don't get me wrong.
Speaker 1: You wouldn't confuse him with some do good or anti
Speaker 1: corruption advocate. Blazer was just a crooked stuck in a
Speaker 1: tug of war between two other crooks. And to understand
Speaker 1: on how all of this fits together and why Blazer
Speaker 1: threw his phone across his bedroom, you need to hear
Speaker 1: about an email Blazer received a couple of weeks before
Speaker 1: from his longtime boss, Jack Warner, a FIFA Vice president
Speaker 1: and the head of conker CALF, the Confederation of North
Speaker 1: Central America and Caribbean Association Football, one of FIFA's six
Speaker 1: regional confederations. Blazer and Warner had been partners and allies
Speaker 1: in world soccer since Warner was first elected the head
Speaker 1: of Conker CALF. They had built a successful, lucrative relationship
Speaker 1: despite being polar opposites. They seem like Mutton Jeff, really
Speaker 1: very very different from completely different worlds, but for some
Speaker 1: reason they hit it off. Blazer was this physically imposing, gregarious,
Speaker 1: Jewish marketing executive from Queens. He made his living traveling
Speaker 1: from sales convention to sales convention, selling you know, pretty
Speaker 1: much anything he could. He was also a suburban soccer dad,
Speaker 1: and that's when he spotted a trend that changed the
Speaker 1: course of his life. Says Mary papin Puss. He knew
Speaker 1: nothing about soccer, but what he did notice was that
Speaker 1: all of these kids were playing soccer, and all of
Speaker 1: these parents were into soccer, and he thought, this is
Speaker 1: the future of sports. Through a combination of charisma and
Speaker 1: force of will, he rose through the ranks of international soccer.
Speaker 1: Along the way, he forged new and very profitable sponsorships
Speaker 1: and TV marketing deals in the US and around the world.
Speaker 1: Warner was every bit the soccer fanatic that Blazer wasn't.
Speaker 1: He was also wired, thin, brash, a black man raised
Speaker 1: Catholic who taught history on the tiny island nation of
Speaker 1: Trinidad and Tobago. He was known most for making things
Speaker 1: happen for himself and his friends. He's journalist Grant Wall,
Speaker 1: who has covered international soccer for more than twenty years,
Speaker 1: describing Warner, he was always a pretty clever, kg guy,
Speaker 1: for Jack Warner, it was always about getting the best
Speaker 1: deal for himself. Two took over the poor and historically
Speaker 1: weak soccer federation Conker Calf. Together they built it into
Speaker 1: a massive soccer marketing empire. In the late eighties, he
Speaker 1: teamed up with Jack Warner, who was the president of
Speaker 1: the Trendad and Tobago Federation, a guy who understood politics,
Speaker 1: and they decided that Jack Warner would run for president
Speaker 1: of Conkacalf, Chuck Blazer would run as general secretary, and
Speaker 1: that they would get all the votes in the Caribbean
Speaker 1: because Jack Warner was involved. They worked together for a
Speaker 1: really long time, with Warner's president and Blazer's general secretary.
Speaker 1: The money started rolling in. With this ring of sponsorships
Speaker 1: and TV agreements. The duo turned the once backwater soccer
Speaker 1: association into a revenue generating powerhouse for FIFA. These guys
Speaker 1: were getting rich. Here's Blazer bragging about his accomplishments. Is
Speaker 1: doing a really excellent job of promoting football around the world.
Speaker 1: If I look back ten years, twenty years and see
Speaker 1: the progress we made, I'm very proud of our accomplishments.
Speaker 1: In the shady world of FIFA. The pair with sticky
Speaker 1: fingers fit right in. Blazer became known as Mr ten
Speaker 1: percent because of a contract that entitled him to a
Speaker 1: ten percent commission on all of Conky Caps marketing deals
Speaker 1: and Warner. He had long been suspected of fixing matches,
Speaker 1: selling World Cup tickets on the black market, and even worse,
Speaker 1: seeking gifts in return for supporting World Cup bids. Their
Speaker 1: partnership made them fabulously wealthy, propelling them up the ranks
Speaker 1: of interne national soccers ruling elite, and landed them spots
Speaker 1: on FIFA's all powerful Executive Committee. It also earned them
Speaker 1: the trust of President set Bladder, who led FIFA from
Speaker 1: until two thousand and fifteen. By trust, I mean no
Speaker 1: one got on FIFA's executive committee without bladders full support.
Speaker 1: The ultimate sporting power broker, the most powerful man in
Speaker 1: world football, Bladder, he's the mayor of World Soccer. FIFA
Speaker 1: is his baby. He's treated as a head of state,
Speaker 1: and he flies in private planes, and he's given great
Speaker 1: difference around the world. Part politician and it seems to
Speaker 1: me part mafia boss. Bladder ruled international soccer with an
Speaker 1: iron fist, just like in the mafia. If you earn
Speaker 1: for the family. The family provides for you. Warner and
Speaker 1: Blazer owed their wealth and status to the empire. Bladder ruled.
Speaker 1: So back to that email Warner's sent to Blazer on
Speaker 1: April first, two thousand and eleven, Warner was about to
Speaker 1: risk all of their success and possibly fortunes on a
Speaker 1: foolish scheme. When the email first arrived, Blazer was furious
Speaker 1: he couldn't believe what he was reading. Warner wrote in
Speaker 1: the email that he had decided to support set Bladder's
Speaker 1: challenger in the upcoming two thousand and eleven FIFA presidential election.
Speaker 1: Jack Warner was backing Mohammad been Hammam, a long time
Speaker 1: FIFA official and president of the Asian Soccer Federation. The
Speaker 1: battle for the presidency has been likened to a civil
Speaker 1: war within the organization. The then sixty two year old
Speaker 1: from the oil rich nation of Qatar stood little chance
Speaker 1: of unseating Bladder on his own, but Qatar had already
Speaker 1: shocked the sports world once before. Do we know to
Speaker 1: organize the two twenty to FIFA vote? Cup is Ka
Speaker 1: That's right, just a few months before, in December of
Speaker 1: two thousand and ten, the small desert nation of just
Speaker 1: over a million and a half people was awarded the
Speaker 1: World Cup. It lacked modern FIFA style stadiums and had
Speaker 1: no soccer pedigree whatsoever. What Qatar did have was money,
Speaker 1: lots of oil and gas money and a desire to
Speaker 1: be a player on the world stage, and so too
Speaker 1: did Mohammed ben Hamm, who orchestrated Qatar's World Cup winning
Speaker 1: bid over countries like Australia, Japan, and the United States. Still,
Speaker 1: Jack Warner's plan to back ben Hamm seemed needlessly reckless
Speaker 1: the Blazer. As part of his scheme, Warner had invited
Speaker 1: bin Hamm to Trinidad and Tobago's capital, port of Spain,
Speaker 1: to meet with about twenty five of the Caribbean's most
Speaker 1: important soccer bosses who would vote in the upcoming FIFA election. Together,
Speaker 1: they could swing the vote against Bladder and in favor
Speaker 1: of ben Hamm. In the shadowy back rooms of FIFA dealmaking.
Speaker 1: That meant money, lots of money in the pockets of
Speaker 1: soccer officials who would choose the next FIFA president. After
Speaker 1: reading the email, a panic Blazer immediately fired off a
Speaker 1: sarcastic response to Warner. Journalist Mary pap and Fuss saw
Speaker 1: the email. I think this first line was I hope
Speaker 1: this is an April Fool's joke, but actually was April
Speaker 1: Fool's Day. The Warner's plan was anything but a joke.
Speaker 1: Chuck heard about it and he was just panicky, and
Speaker 1: he told him, we can do this more discreetly, in
Speaker 1: a better way. He said, please, don't do this. Weeks later,
Speaker 1: when Jack Warner in the Caribbean Soccer Bosses met in
Speaker 1: Port of Spain, he barreled ahead with his plan. Warner's
Speaker 1: lack of discretion was on full display when he told
Speaker 1: out one million dollars on behalf of ben Hamm and
Speaker 1: small brown paper envelopes. And that's what Blazer had learned
Speaker 1: in the call that made him so angry that he
Speaker 1: threw his phone across the room. They passed out forty
Speaker 1: thousand dollar bribes in cash to twenty five members of
Speaker 1: the Caribbean Football Union. One of the officials from the Bahamas,
Speaker 1: who was in the room with Warner, had called Blazer
Speaker 1: to tell them about the bribes. What no one knew
Speaker 1: at the time but we know now was part of
Speaker 1: the two day meeting in Port of Spain was filmed.
Speaker 1: The audio it isn't great, But if you could see
Speaker 1: the grainy video, you'd see a nondescriptive conference room in
Speaker 1: Trinidad's High Regency Hotel with about two dozen and Caribbean
Speaker 1: soccer officials sitting behind long rows of tables, each one
Speaker 1: with a small bottle of water and a clear drinking
Speaker 1: glass at their side. We do have the audio. You
Speaker 1: can hear Jack Warner on tape brazenly urging his fellow
Speaker 1: Caribbean soccer officials to accept the quote gift for Mohammed
Speaker 1: bin Hammams. You want to use it. And if you
Speaker 1: ever wondered what it might sound like if ethics and
Speaker 1: integrity were blatantly mocked in the act of bribery, well
Speaker 1: Warner happily provided a script telling anyone who considered returning
Speaker 1: the money because of ethical concerns to go open to church.
Speaker 1: I know that us get some people here who believe
Speaker 1: the modo. If you churchmen, if you're pious, open to
Speaker 1: church friends. No one would accuse Blazer of being pious,
Speaker 1: And yet he was beside himself after hearing about the
Speaker 1: bribes and the envelope stuffed with cash. His longtime partner
Speaker 1: in crime had crossed soccer's godfather, the most powerful man
Speaker 1: in world sport, Sep Bladder, Chuck Blazer, and Jack Warner
Speaker 1: were now on opposite sides of the battle for control
Speaker 1: of FIFA. Here again, Mary pappenfuss I think if it
Speaker 1: had been done more discreetly, with more sophistication, and Sep
Speaker 1: Ladder would have been lost. The position Chuck wouldn't have cared.
Speaker 1: It was just it couldn't have been contained because there
Speaker 1: were whistleblowers calling people up. So he knew he had
Speaker 1: to come out fast on the right side. That was,
Speaker 1: you know, the red line. Chuck had to turn Jack
Speaker 1: in or go down in flames with him. Anxious, angry, afraid,
Speaker 1: Blazer knew he had no choice but to report Warner
Speaker 1: to FIFA's leadership. Still, he hesitated for a few days,
Speaker 1: knowing full well that his longtime friend could be vindictive
Speaker 1: and that Warner knew all of Blazer's personal secrets, secrets
Speaker 1: that could in Blazer's FIFA career or even worse, Landaman prisons.
Speaker 1: A frantic Blazer made a call to FIFA's Secretary General
Speaker 1: Jerome Valk, the one man many thought could be taught
Speaker 1: football chiefs set Blatter withdraws. Mohammed bin Hammam of Kata
Speaker 1: says he won't stand for FIFA president. It's a last
Speaker 1: minute decision taken just before he was due to answer
Speaker 1: claims of corruption, and soccer's ruling bosses immediately opened an
Speaker 1: ethics investigation. The FIFA scandal rumbles on. Within days, Warner
Speaker 1: and bin Hammam were out banned from the sport. Football's
Speaker 1: governing body is trying to tackle its shading inner workings
Speaker 1: by suspending two executives on corruption charges. Bladder would easily
Speaker 1: be reelected for a fourth term as FIFA's president, and
Speaker 1: then he casually brushed aside the entire scandal that was
Speaker 1: steering his sport right in the face. Here's set Bladder crisis.
Speaker 1: What is a crisis? If somebody, if you would describe
Speaker 1: to me what there is a crisis, then I would
Speaker 1: answer football is not in the crisis. Blazer was hailed
Speaker 1: as a hero and went before the camera as the
Speaker 1: clean face of an organization long suspected of corruption. Um,
Speaker 1: what can be tons playing up? Pay for what I did?
Speaker 1: And I just to turn around and do it, expose
Speaker 1: it where it exists. The journalist grand Wall notes the irony.
Speaker 1: For a while, it was hilarious check Blazer was being
Speaker 1: called a whistleblower when Chuck Blazer had been just as
Speaker 1: corrupt as Jack Warner hands in hand for decades. From
Speaker 1: the outside the chet holy Field Federal Building in Orange County, California,
Speaker 1: I couldn't look more out of place. With its steep
Speaker 1: triangular walls, it looks more like an ancient Mesopotamian temple
Speaker 1: than the US government building. Inside, however, with its endless
Speaker 1: bright fluorescent lights, white tile floors, and rows of cubicles,
Speaker 1: it looks and feels like what it is. The regional
Speaker 1: offices of the Internal Revenue Service in August of two
Speaker 1: thousand and eleven, just a few months after Warner tried
Speaker 1: to bribe those Caribbean soccer officials, Assistant Special Agent in
Speaker 1: charge Amy shaw Billion was at her desk when she
Speaker 1: was forwarded a news article from one of her senior agents,
Speaker 1: Steve Berryman. You'll remember Berryman as one of the two
Speaker 1: federal agents who stopped Blazer outside of Trump Tower on
Speaker 1: that Chris November night in two thousand and eleven. Berriman
Speaker 1: rushed into Chabillion's office to show her a news article
Speaker 1: with the headline FBI examines US soccer bosses financial records.
Speaker 1: The British investigative journals Andrew Jennings detailed five hundred thousand
Speaker 1: dollars worth of suspicious payments made to Blazer from dodgy
Speaker 1: Caribbean soccer officials. The British public were irate with FIFA
Speaker 1: after losing out on the two thousand and eighteen World
Speaker 1: Cup to Russia. Britain's press were sniffing around for stories
Speaker 1: about FIFA corruption, confident that Russia and Qatar bribed FIFA
Speaker 1: officials to win their World Cup bids. At the time,
Speaker 1: Blazer was still flying high as the whistleblower on FIFA corruption.
Speaker 1: Is faith for inherently corrupt. I think individuals are for
Speaker 1: a long time followers of global sport, like Andrew Jennings,
Speaker 1: Blazer's act was an ironic twist of events. Jennings had
Speaker 1: spent the better part of the previous two decades chronicling
Speaker 1: FIFA's shady inner workings, and had written several books about
Speaker 1: FIFA's corruption. Jennings knew Blazer's hands were dirty. When questioned
Speaker 1: by Jennings and other journalists, Blazer didn't deny receiving the
Speaker 1: offshore payments, he insisted, though all the transactions were done legally.
Speaker 1: Jennings new Blazer's explanation of the payments didn't add up.
Speaker 1: Blazers carefully constructed house of cards was beginning to collapse,
Speaker 1: not only for him but also for FIFA, and after
Speaker 1: seeing the news that Jennings broke, Berryman, a lifelong soccer fan,
Speaker 1: thought it best to look more closely at Blazer's claims.
Speaker 1: He looked into the tax filing and discovered it there
Speaker 1: was a really good potential for a tax case. That's
Speaker 1: Amy Sabillian, Berryman's boss. We didn't see any open bank
Speaker 1: accounts even in his name. From my perspective, I saw
Speaker 1: somebody that was living pretty high living here in the
Speaker 1: United States, clearly making income and not filing despite the
Speaker 1: appearance of overflowing wealth. Remember the two Trump Tower apartments.
Speaker 1: Blazer hadn't filed US taxes in years. Mary pap Infest
Speaker 1: told me there's an easy explanation. Blazer's money was in
Speaker 1: fact FIFA's money. He didn't spend a penny of his
Speaker 1: own money. Conker Calf, the local FIFA organization, paid his
Speaker 1: rent every time he went out to dinner. Everything he
Speaker 1: ate was paid for. If the FBI was sniffing around FIFA,
Speaker 1: as media reports suggested, and Steve Berryman had just discovered
Speaker 1: a sure fire way to get inside a FIFA's inner circle,
Speaker 1: Chuck Lazier Chabillion's office reached out to the FBI to
Speaker 1: offer its help. The team presented it to them to
Speaker 1: see if they were interested in inviting us into their case. Again.
Speaker 1: The Department of Justice and the FBI have been tracking
Speaker 1: FIFA's corruption for years. It's dodgy TV deals, the payments
Speaker 1: of crooked officials in World Cup vote buying, but federal
Speaker 1: investigators had made surprisingly little progress in their case against
Speaker 1: the secretive international organization based in Zurich, Switzerland, a country
Speaker 1: famous for its secretive banking system. What Berryman had uncovered
Speaker 1: and was now offering the FBI was what law enforcement
Speaker 1: agencies throughout history have needed to crack any large scale
Speaker 1: corruption conspiracy. An inside man. Chabillion only realized later how
Speaker 1: important the Blazer break had been. I really did not
Speaker 1: understand the gravity of that connection with FIFA. There were
Speaker 1: members of the team that we're thinking this is huge.
Speaker 1: I remember thinking, uh, yeah, all right, you know, tax
Speaker 1: case sounds awesome. You know, that's what I want my
Speaker 1: agents to be working. And if it became something bigger
Speaker 1: than all, all the better. What started as an I
Speaker 1: r S investigation into an eccentric and colorful sports executive
Speaker 1: turned into one of the largest international corruption cases in
Speaker 1: history and would lead to dozens of FIFA officials being
Speaker 1: charged with fraud, corruption, and money laundering. The investigation would
Speaker 1: wipe out most of FIFA's entrenched senior leadership and exposed
Speaker 1: the dark underbelly of world soccer. Butbi rate is only
Speaker 1: the start of our story. Actually, it's more like the
Speaker 1: middle of our story. FIFA's corruption and depravity run deeper
Speaker 1: than money laundering and bribery. Since the nineteen fifties, FIFA's
Speaker 1: leaders have been accused of enabling dictators and turning a
Speaker 1: blind eye to gross human rights violations. Its history is
Speaker 1: one built on colonialism and inherent racism, and maybe it's
Speaker 1: no wonder that history led to an organization some say
Speaker 1: looks more like the mafia than a modern sports empire.
Speaker 1: Its top executives are accused of using the organization's vast
Speaker 1: wealth to buy influence, line their pockets and remain in power.
Speaker 1: Coming up on Episode two, A corrupt kingdom that took
Speaker 1: decades to build comes crashing down as the Lords of
Speaker 1: Soccer get a rude awakening from the U. S. Department
Speaker 1: of Justice. The Lords of Soccer, How FIFA Stole the
Speaker 1: Beautiful Game is an Inside Voices Media production in conjunction
Speaker 1: with I Heart Radio. The series was written and executive
Speaker 1: produced by Gary Scott and me Connor Powell. Logan Heftell
Speaker 1: and Katie mcmurran provided the sound design with assistance from j. C.
Speaker 1: Swaddick and Jake blue Note. Alec Cowen is our associate
Speaker 1: producer and Jeffrey Katz was our story editor. Our fact
Speaker 1: checker is Alexa O'Brien and thanks to Miles Gray, who
Speaker 1: produced the series for I Heart Radio. If you have
Speaker 1: any comments or questions, please reach out. You can find
Speaker 1: us on Twitter. I'm at Connor m Powell and Gary
Speaker 1: is at Gary Robert Scott and if you have any
Speaker 1: stories about FIFA, let us know. If you like what
Speaker 1: you hear, please give us a shout out at the
Speaker 1: hashtag Lords of Soccer