Garcia wants corruption report published

FIFA’s chief ethics investigator Michael Garcia wants his report into alleged corruption in the World Cup bidding process to publicised.

Garcia – the head of investigatory chamber of FIFA’s ethics committee – sent his 350-page report into the bidding campaigns for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, which have been dogged by accusations of corruption after being awarded to Russia and Qatar respectively, to football’s global governing body earlier this month.

The findings of that report are now being examined by Joachim Eckert – chairman of the adjudicatory chamber of the FIFA Ethics Committee – who has set a target of November to announce his verdict while reiterating that the details of the report would not be made public.

However, FIFA has come under increased pressure to change that stance in recent times, with vice-president Jim Boyce and executive committee member Prince Ali bin Al Hussein of Jordan both calling for the public to made aware of the contents of Garcia’s investigation.

“In the interest of full transparency, I believe it is important that the much-anticipated report on the ethics investigation that is crucial to ensuring good governance at FIFA is fully disclosed and open to the public,” Prince Ali posted on Twitter on Tuesday.

“This will only help the football community move ahead in reforming our institutions in the best interest of the sport.”

And Garcia has now put football’s governing body under further pressure by insisting that it is now necessary for the report to be published.

A statement from Garcia read: “Given the limited role Mr Hans-Joachim Eckert envisions for the Adjudicatory Chamber, I believe it is now necessary for the FIFA Executive Committee to authorise the appropriate publication of the Report on the Inquiry into the 2018/2022 FIFA World Cup Bidding Process.”

“Publication would be consistent with statements made by a number of Executive Committee members, with the view recently expressed by Independent Governance Committee Chair Mark Pieth, and with the goals of the reform process.”