FIFA's
Executive Committee has voted to publish a report into alleged corruption
compiled by its former ethics investigator. It also rejected the idea of
reopening the bidding processes for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
Deutsche Welle, 19 Dec 2014
FIFA
President Sepp Blatter said in a statement posted on the website of soccer's
world governing body on Friday that the Executive Committee, currently meeting
in Marakesh, Morocco, had unanimously agreed to release a legally
"appropriate version" of Michael Garcia's report.
This was
understood to mean that some parts of the report would likely be redacted out,
in part to protect witnesses who spoke to Garcia's team over the course of his
inquiry into alleged corruption during the bidding processes that saw Russia
awarded the 2018 World Cup and Qatar the 2022 event.
Blatter
also pointed to the need to ensure that FIFA did not harm investigations or
proceedings against individuals that were launched as a result of Garcia's
findings.
"Now
it is important that the work of the Ethics Committee continues and that any
instances of wrongdoing are fully investigated and their perpetrators pursued
and sanctioned," the statement said.
2018 and 2022
votes not to be revisited
The FIFA
president, though, ruled out reopening the bids for the 2018 and 2022 Cups.
"We
will not revisit the 2018 and 2022 vote and a report by Mr. Scala (chairman of
the independent Audit and Compliance Committee) supports the view that there
are no legal grounds to revoke the Executive Committee's decision on the award
of the 2018 and 20122 World Cups," Blatter said.
The ExCo
decision comes two days after Garcia, a top US lawyer who was the lead
investigator looking into allegations of corruption surrounding the two bidding
processes stepped down. Garcia cited a "lack of leadership " by FIFA
over his inquiry, which he said had revealed "serious and wide-ranging
issues" in the bidding for the two events.
His
resignation came in protest against a summary of his report released by FIFA
judge Hans-Joachim Eckert, which stated that no serious corruption had been
found and that the processes of bidding for neither of the events needed to be
repeated.
Garcia resigned a day after FIFA rejected his appeall to get his full report released.
pfd/rc (Reuters, AFP, AP, dpa, SID)
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.