When you think about people who shaped the World Cup,
Pele or Maradona may spring to mind.
But how about Chuck Blazer, the American former FIFA executive who admitted to taking heaps of bribes?
Partly as a result of Blazer's testimony,
and the wiretaps he wore, sweeping international investigations have led to
the arrest and conviction of dozens of corrupt soccer officials, including Blazer himself.
That’s Ken Bensinger, an author and investigative journalist who wrote this book on the scandal.
In May 2015, Swiss police raided a five-star hotel in Zurich
and arrested top executives from the International Federation of Association Football, or FIFA.
The World Cup, and soccer in general, had become such big business
that executives were being offered huge bribes to help ensure certain companies won media contracts -
or to vote for a particular country to host the World Cup.
Blazer had done particularly well from his dodgy dealings.
He reportedly bought himself: A $900,000 beachside condo in the Bahamas,
two South Beach apartments, a hummer, hundreds of first class flights to and from Europe
and a suite in Trump Tower for himself and another reportedly just for his pets.
But like Al Capone, Blazer's undoing was tax evasion.
He struck a deal with the FBI and provided live information for a year and a half
while still on FIFA's all-powerful executive committee, known as Ex-Co.
They were the two dozen or so men who decided, in secret, who gets to hold the World Cup -
a decision with billions of dollars in media rights and infrastructure projects hanging on it.
Blazer alleged that the vote to give South Africa the 2010 World Cup was rigged.
He also took part in the most contentious decisions of all:
a double vote in 2010 that handed this year's event to Russia
and the 2022 World Cup to Qatar, a tiny but rich gulf state with little soccer pedigree.
Swiss, U.S. and French prosecutors are still investigating allegations of bribery surrounding those votes.
Of the Ex-Co members from 2010, most are now either banned from soccer or facing investigation.
In the U.S., some $300 million from around two dozen guilty parties has been collected so far.
Six of them former Ex-Co members, including Blazer.
Blazer pleaded guilty to 10 corruption charges. But he died in 2017 before sentencing.
As part of a clean-up operation to restore credibility, FIFA removed the power to award World Cups from the Ex-Co
and handed it to its 200 or so national members.
In June, FIFA's members chose the U.S., Canada and Mexico to host the 2026 tournament.