CONCACAF: Blazer lands FIFA post

• by Soccer America , Jan 28, 1997

Less than a week after the death of Mexican Guillermo Canedo, CONCACAF president Jack Warner filled Canedo's spot as the FIFA vice president from the CONCACAF region and general secretary Chuck Blazer was elected to fill the vacant North American position on the executive committee.

Blazer is the first American to serve on the FIFA executive committee since James McGuire, the former president of what is now known as U.S. Soccer. McGuire, after whom the under-19 boys youth championship cup is named, died in 1974.

Blazer's election by a 5-2 vote of the CONCACAF executive committee is seen as a defeat for U.S. Soccer president and MLS chairman Alan Rothenberg, who had joined the CONCACAF executive committee last year and has expressed interest in playing a greater role in international soccer affairs.

Blazer was active in American soccer as USSF vice president (1984-86), USSF national teams committee chairman (1986-87) and American Soccer League commissioner (1988) before becoming CONCACAF secretary general and moving its headquarters to New York in 1990 following Warner's election as CONCACAF election.

Blazer is the second confederation general secretary to win election to the FIFA executive committee in recent months. Egyptian Mustapha Fahmy, who runs the affairs of the African soccer confederation (CAF), won election after the CAF was granted an extra spot on the FIFA executive commitee.

CONCACAF was the only confederation not to get an additional spot.

Isaac Sasso, president of Costa Rican First Division club Herediano, is the other CONCACAF representative.