Fifa report 'erroneous', says lawyer who investigated corruption claims
Fifa report 'erroneous', says lawyer who investigated corruption claims
The findings of Fifa's inquiry into allegations of corruption during
bidding for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups have been questioned - by the
man who conducted the two-year investigation into the claims.
In an unexpected twist, lawyer Michael Garcia says the
report "contains numerous materially incomplete and erroneous
representations of the facts and conclusions".
The 42-page report cleared both Russia and Qatar, who will host the 2018 and 2022 tournaments, of wrongdoing.
It also accused the English Football Association of flouting bid rules and damaging Fifa's image.
Fifa, the body that governs world football, welcomed the report and said it brought closure to the damaging episode.
British MP Clive Efford |
---|
"Fifa has no choice but to publish Michael Garcia's report
in full if it expects anyone to believe their claims that that there has
been no cover-up over allegations of corruption in the World Cup
bidding process." |
It also raises concerns about the work of Hans-Joachim Eckert, Fifa's independent ethics adjudicator, who wrote the report.
Eckert, a German judge, based his findings on the work of Garcia, who had been appointed by Fifa to conduct an independent investigation into claims of corruption.
Garcia says he now intends to contact Fifa's appeals committee.
News of Garcia's attack on its report is likely to come as blow and an embarrassment to Fifa, which has been attempting to address allegations of corruption within its organisation.
It hoped Eckert's report would end talk of possible re-votes to decide where the 2018 and 2022 World Cups would be held.
But there are now calls for Garcia's entire findings, which ran into hundreds of pages, to be published in full.
"Fifa has no choice but to publish Michael Garcia's report in full if it expects anyone to believe their claims that there has been no cover-up over allegations of corruption in the World Cup bidding process," said British MP Clive Efford, Labour's Shadow Minister for Sport.
Another British MP, Damien Collins, had already labelled Eckert's report "a whitewash" before Garcia's statement was issued.
He said those allegations remained unanswered.
"It is a whitewash as it is an attempt to con people that there has been a full and independent investigation when there has not been," he said.
"The result is that allegations of bribery and serious wrongdoing remain unanswered and they are still suppressing the full report."
Qatar's bid team has always denied allegations of corruption, while Alexey Sorokin, the chief of Russia's 2018 World Cup organising committee, said the country had nothing to hide.
"We were always confident that there could be nothing which would come out from this investigation," Sorokin told Sky Sports News.
"It's something Fifa deemed important to do. It was done, we participated, we complied. What more can we do?"
Following the publication of the report, the English FA rejected the criticism levelled at it, insisting it had "conducted a transparent bid".
It was accused of trying to "curry favour" with former Fifa vice-president Jack Warner, who quit his role in 2011 amid bribery allegations.
An FA statement read: "We do not accept any criticism regarding the integrity of England's bid or any of the individuals involved."
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