Michael Garcia, Chairman of the two chambers of the new FIFA Ethics Committee
After years of intrigue about allegedly corrupt World Cup bidding, FIFA published an investigation report yesterday [Macau time] that showed how voters exploited the murky system yet allowed Russia and Qatar to host the 2018 and 2022 tournaments.
FIFA published investigator Michael Garcia’s 430-page dossier less than 24 hours after Germany’s biggest-selling daily Bild began reporting extracts from a leaked copy it received.
The full report verified the broad conclusions of a summary of Garcia’s work published by FIFA in November 2014.
A Russia bid backed by Vladimir Putin gave limited cooperation to Garcia’s team which found no evidence of undue influence. Putin met six of 22 FIFA voters before the December 2010 elections.
Qatar’s ultimate victory over the United States tested FIFA’s bid rules to the limit. The bid team used a full range of lavishly funded state and sports agencies, plus advisers who raised Garcia’s suspicions.
Garcia’s report was once a holy grail for FIFA critics who hoped it would be explosive and force a re-run of the World Cup hosting votes.
Many believed Russian and Qatari bids must have behaved badly to persuade a FIFA executive committee lineup in 2010 that has since been widely discredited.
“Bid teams operated in an environment where a number of [voters] did not hesitate to exploit a system that in certain respects did not bind them to the same rules applicable to bid teams,” Garcia wrote, noting that some FIFA officials “sought to obtain personal favors or benefits.”
Some of those same FIFA officials have since been indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice in a widespread racketeering case that is ongoing.
Garcia’s team did not have the evidence-gathering powers of a criminal probe and it was clear they would be hampered even before starting a globe-trotting 2013-14 investigation.
His full report detailed how: FIFA voters refused to be interviewed; bid teams such as Russia and Spain were evasive; potential key witnesses could not be tracked down.
Garcia’s work also has been overtaken since he delivered it to FIFA’s then ethics judge in September 2014.
A 42-page summary written by German judge Hans Joachim Eckert was published two months later and disputed by Garcia. Their public falling out prompted FIFA to pass the dossier and supporting evidence to Switzerland’s attorney general for review.
The true significance of Garcia might only be seen once Swiss authorities have completed their work. It started with suspected money laundering linked to the World Cup bids and extended to other areas of FIFA business.
Around 25 investigations have been launched, the Swiss federal prosecution office said this month, using more than 170 suspect bank transactions as evidence.
Swiss investigators have shared evidence in recent years with the FBI and U.S. prosecutors who have indicted or taken guilty pleas from more than 40 football and marketing officials.
Russia has repeatedly denied wrongdoing since 2010, though the report confirmed that leased computers used by Russia’s bid campaign were later destroyed. AP
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