Geneva: Hours after a FIFA judge cleared Russia and Qatar of corruption in their winning World Cup bids, the American who led the investigation said yesterday he would appeal the decision to close the case because it was based on “materially incomplete and erroneous” information.
In what appears to be an open act of conflict within Fifa, prosecutor Michael Garcia criticised ethics judge Joachim Eckert’s 42-page report clearing the 2018 and 2022 hosts. Eckert’s findings, which were released yesterday morning, were based on Garcia’s investigation.
The dispute between Garcia and Eckert further fuelled the turmoil surrounding Fifa’s decision to give the next two World Cups to Russia and Qatar.
“Today’s decision by [Eckert] contains numerous materially incomplete and erroneous representations of the facts and conclusions detailed in the Investigatory Chamber’s report,” Garcia said in a statement released by his law firm. “I intend to appeal this decision to the Fifa Appeal Committee.”
Garcia had called for key details of his 430 pages of investigation to be published, provoking clashes with Fifa President Sepp Blatter.
Eckert found that any wrongdoing found in Garcia’s investigation did not affect the integrity of the December 2010 votes by FIFA’s executive committee.
Eckert formally ended the probe almost four years after the vote by the governing body’s scandal-tainted executive committee. No proof was found of bribes or voting pacts in a probe hampered by a lack of access to evidence and uncooperative witnesses.
‘Closed’
“The evaluation of the 2018/2022 FIFA World Cups bidding process is closed for the FIFA Ethics Committee,” the German judge wrote in a statement released by FIFA.
Eckert’s report reserved his harshest condemnation for England’s failed bid for the 2018 tournament. It criticised England for wooing disgraced former Fifa vice-president Jack Warner and “damaging the image of Fifa and the bidding process.”
“Fifa welcomes the fact that a degree of closure has been reached,” the governing body said yesterday in a statement. “As such, Fifa looks forward to continuing the preparations for Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022, which are already well under way.”
Despite finding wrongdoing among the 11 bidding nations, Eckert said the integrity of the votes was not affected.
“In particular, the effects of these occurrences on the bidding process as a whole were far from reaching any threshold that would require returning to the bidding process, let alone reopening it,” he summarised.
The corruption case is still open for past and current members of Fifa’s ruling board.
Critics of Fifa have long relied on Eckert and ethics prosecutor Garcia to build a case to remove Qatar as host in 2022 by proving suspicions that votes and influence were bought. Qatar beat the United States 14-8 in the final round of a five-nation contest.
That hope ended as Fifa released Eckert’s 42-page summary findings of the investigation reports, which have stayed secret against Garcia’s wishes.
Payments by Mohammad Bin Hammam to other African officials and Fifa vice-president Jack Warner were judged to be for the disgraced Qatari’s personal political interests, not the 2022 bid.
Still, both winners had issues highlighted by Eckert.
Russian staffers
Qatar’s bid had “potentially problematic facts and circumstances,” plus a “significant lack of transparency” in its use of advisers. Computers leased for use by Russia staffers were destroyed. Garcia, a former US Attorney in New York, was asked by Eckert to prosecute cases against individuals.
Exactly who that implicates is unclear as Eckert did not reveal who Garcia suspects of wrongdoing. Nor did Eckert identify by name any serving member of the Fifa board, except when praising Fifa President Sepp Blatter, nor officials linked to the nine bid candidates.
Eckert has previously said his final judgments could take until April. Appeals against sanctions, to Fifa and the Court of Arbitration for Sport, could extend the process even further.
England’s failed 2018 campaign, which received only two of 22 votes in an all-European race, fared badly in Eckert’s report. Netherlands-Belgium had no issues and Eckert did not include comments on the Spain-Portugal candidacy, which appeared to be the bid noted as the least cooperative with Garcia.
