FIFA released the Garcia report today, detailing the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup.
SANTA MONICA – Corruption allegations have long tainted FIFA. In the past couple years, many officials have been accused of corruption and FIFA’s own former president Sepp Blatter was banned for 6 years. Now, some insight has been revealed into what led to FIFA announcing that the 2018 World Cup would be in Russia and that the 2022 World Cup would be in Qatar on the very same day, a decision that drew a lot of questions. Today, FIFA published the Garcia report on their website, a highly secret report, that delved into and uncovered the bidding process for these two World Cups.
Over the course of 18 months Michael Garcia, the former ethics investigator for FIFA, interviewed 75 people and complied a report investigating possible corruption, bribes, and any unethical activity that led to these two bids being awarded. His report, completed in 2014, was not published but rather passed off to FIFA ethics judge Hans-Joachim Eckert. Despite Garcia strongly disagreeing with Eckert’s decision and eventually resigning, Eckert concluded that the evidence brought to him was not substantial enough to re-open the bidding process.
Now, years later, FIFA acquired knowledge that the Garcia report had been leaked to a German newspaper. In turn, FIFA published the documents on their website “to avoid the dissemination of any misleading information,” they said on their website. They said, according to Reuters that ultimately, “for the sake of transparency, FIFA welcomes the news that this report has now been finally published.”
The full report can be read in three parts. Part one. Part two. Part three.
Some content/photos courtesy of Reuters.
