FIFA probe of Blazer delayed

Published Aug. 2, 2013 1:00 a.m. ET

foxsports

FIFA has put its investigation of alleged financial corruption by American soccer official Chuck Blazer on hold until next year.

Soccer's governing body says lead investigator Robert Torres had found unspecified ''circumstances which made it advisable to provisionally suspend'' the case.

Blazer, who represented the United States on FIFA's board from 1997 until leaving soccer this year, is accused of embezzling at least $21 million while general secretary of the CONCACAF confederation working alongside disgraced former president Jack Warner.

FIFA's ethics committee suspended Blazer for 90 days in May while it investigated spending and commissions from contracts detailed in an audit of CONCACAF finances.

Blazer's whistleblower role in a 2011 bribery scandal helped FIFA remove Warner and former presidential candidate Mohamed bin Hammam from their football duties, and ensured Sepp Blatter won re-election.