Michael Garcia has resigned from the FIFA ethics committee that investigated the bid process to the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
FIFA president Sepp Blatter has ruled out revisiting the vote for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups after the world governing body’s executive committee agreed unanimously that an “appropriate” form of Michael Garcia’s report should be published.
Blatter said “external legal experts” supported the view that “there are no legal grounds” to revoke the controversial vote in 2010 to award the World Cups to Russia and Qatar.
FIFA’s executive committee agreed unanimously that an “appropriate” form of the report into World Cup bidding by Garcia, the ethics investigator who resigned earlier this week, should be published but with names and other details removed.
Officials at a meeting in Morocco agreed to the proposal without a vote being taken, but nothing will be published until the ethics committee charges against three FIFA ExCo members — Angel Villar Llona of Spain, Belgium’s Michel D’Hooghe and Thailand’s Worawi Makudi — have been dealt with.
Garcia quit a day after the FIFA appeals panel rejected his challenge of German judge and fellow ExCo colleague Hans-Joachim Eckert’s summary of the confidential 430-page investigation dossier.
But despite announcing that a version of Garcia’s report will be made public, Blatter insists both Russia and Qatar will remain as hosts of the 2018 and 2022 tournaments respectively.
“The report is about history and I am focused on the future,” Blatter said in an official FIFA statement on Friday.
“We will not revisit the 2018 and 2022 vote and a report by independent, external legal experts commissioned by Mr. [Domenico] Scala [independent Audit and Compliance Committee Chairman] supports the view that there are no legal grounds to revoke the Executive Committee’s decision on the award of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
Blatter admitted his shock at Garcia’s resignation earlier in the week.
“We are already in the process of incorporating recommendations made by independent experts including the Ethics Committee for how the FIFA World Cup selection process can be improved so that everyone can be confident that the 2026 bidding process will be fair, ethical and open.”
Blatter had asked the FIFA ExCo to vote in favour of publishing Garcia’s report upon Scala’s guidance, saying: “I am pleased they have agreed. It has been a long process to arrive at this point and I understand the views of those who have been critical.
“We have always been determined that the truth should be known. That is, after all, why we set up an independent Ethics Committee with an investigatory chamber that has all necessary means to undertake investigations on its own initiative.
“At the same time we also need to remember that while the report is complete, the investigations flowing from it are not. We must ensure that we do not jeopardise those investigations and the proceedings against various individuals already initiated by the independent Ethics Committee. Participants in the investigation also deserve to have their rights respected.”
Blatter also announced that FIFA ExCo has appointed Cornel Borbely as acting Chairman of the investigatory chamber of the independent Ethics Committee to replace Garcia, with a vote due on May 29 next year.
FIFA rejected complaints from whistleblowers earlier this week over the conduct of Eckert alleging that he deliberately breached anonymity clauses in a summary of Garcia’s report.