American Huckster: How Chuck Blazer Got Rich From--and Sold Out--the Most Powerful Cabal in World Sports

With journalistic candor, Papenfuss and Thompson, former New York Daily News editors, still seem to have a love-hate relationship with Chuck Blazer, a scam artist who turned the massive profits of the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) into his personal piggy bank. The writers methodically unearth Blazer's many schemes. He and his Caribbean sidekick, Jack Warner, were two jet-setters who were courted by world leaders and celebrities while pocketing over $20 million in bribes, kickbacks, and other graft from members of FIFA and CONCACAF, the regional soccer federation of the Americas. The authors also survey the brazen criminal activities of ousted FIFA president Sepp Blatter. The writers follow Blazer's 17-year rise to the top, with his charm and cunning, lavish lifestyle, and yen for strippers, before the FBI brokered a deal to bring down the FIFA hierarchy in 2011. This grim, always entertaining cautionary tale of greed and runaway ego is a worthy addition to any reader's collection of business fantasies gone awry. (May)