US senator urges Blatter to release Garcia Report

United States senator Chuck Schumer called on re-elected FIFA president Sepp Blatter to release the Garcia Report in full.

The full report, by former US attorney Michael Garcia, into alleged corruption in the World Cup bidding process is yet to be released.

Garcia slammed the summary put out by FIFA, which has this week been rocked by a scandal during which nine of its officials were indicted for racketeering, conspiracy and corruption charges.

In a statement, Schumer congratulated Blatter but urged his new term to begin with the release of the Garcia Report.

“I write to urge you to make the first action of your new term the release of the complete, un-redacted version of the 2014 report written by former United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Michael Garcia,” the statement read.

“In light of the recent federal indictments by the United States Department of Justice, it is critical that FIFA release the full report.

“The executive summary of the report issued by the FIFA Ethics Committee Chairman Hans-Joachim Eckert in November 2014 was, in the words of the author of the report Michael Garcia, “materially incomplete” and contained “erroneous representations of the facts and conclusions”.

“The public has a right to know what unethical and illegal practices Garcia unearthed in the full report.

“FIFA’s request that Michael Garcia, a former U.S. Attorney from New York, investigate the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bids indicates your interest in ensuring that ethical standards are upheld within FIFA.

“Public comments made by yourself, as President, and by several high-ranking members of FIFA, have made your desire to root out corruption clear. However, the failure to release the full report to the general public demonstrates only a superficial commitment to ending corruption.

“To repair the damage caused by rampant allegations of corruption within the organisation and diminishing public trust, FIFA must release the complete report.”

Schumer said “a cloud of corruption” would hang over FIFA until the public
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was satisfied a full accounting of the allegations had been made.