FIFA releases leaked Garcia 'corruption' report
FIFA has released its full report investigating alleged corruption in the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bids.
Despite explosive reports initially suggesting malfeasance in the voting process of the Russia and Qatar-hosted tournaments, Tuesday’s release does not prove ethical misconduct by either party.
With the world football governing body’s chief Gianni Infantino calling for transparency on the heels of Sepp Blatter’s dubious run, chairpersons of the independent Ethics Committee, Maria Claudia Rojas of the investigatory chamber and Vassilios Skouris of the adjudicatory chamber, published the report Tuesday.
The 2014 report was penned by former FIFA independent ethics investigator Michael Garcia, who quit in protest when only a 42-page summary of the allegations was published. That version acquitted Qatar of corruption claims, and after German outlet Bild released extracts of the full report earlier Tuesday, FIFA followed suit.
While the report does absolve Russia and Qatar’s bids of wrongdoing, the “Garcia Report” mentions a 2-million Swiss-franc payment to the account of the 10-year-old daughter of an unnamed FIFA official.
FIFA’s statement claims that despite numerous calls from Infantino and the 2016 FIFA Council meeting in Mexico City to publish the report, “it is worth noting that the former chairpersons of the Ethics Committee, Cornel Borbely and Hans-Joachim Eckert, had always refused to publish it.”
“Publishing the report in full would actually put the FIFA ethics committee and FIFA itself in a very difficult situation legally,” Eckert told BBC Sport in Oct. 2014.
FIFA’s statement states that it intends to further discuss the “Garcia Report” at a meeting next month, adding, “As the document has been illegally leaked to a German newspaper, the new chairpersons have requested the immediate publication of the full report in order to avoid the dissemination of any misleading information.
“For the sake of transparency, FIFA welcomes the news that this report has now been finally published.”
The 359-page report can be downloaded in its entirety here.
