The evidence which could strip Qatar of the 2022 World Cup "has landed at FIFA," according to the AP. FIFA said Friday that "it received three reports from ethics investigator Michael Garcia and his team after their year-long probe of alleged corruption in the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding contests." FIFA did not say if Garcia's 350-page report, drawing on 200,000 pages of evidence, "has put Qatar's hosting rights into question."
FIFA said in a statement, ''The report sets forth detailed factual findings; reaches conclusions concerning further action with respect to certain individuals; identifies issues to be referred to other FIFA committees; and makes recommendations for future bidding processes." Garcia did not investigate Russia -- where he is barred because of his previous work as a U.S. Attorney -- or the American bid, "which lost to Qatar in a final round of voting." Separate investigations on those bids "were submitted by Cornel Borbely, a Swiss lawyer who is a deputy chairman on the ethics committee." The reports, delayed since July, will now be examined by FIFA Ethics Judge Joachim Eckert, "who can impose sanctions." It "is unclear if Eckert has authority to remove hosts or order re-votes." FIFA President Sepp Blatter insisted that "only his ruling executive committee can change hosting decisions" (AP, 9/5). BLOOMBERG's Tariq Panja wrote since the selections, FIFA "changed the way hosts are selected by inviting its entire 209-nation membership to participate in a final vote instead of a smaller panel." FIFA did not provide a date "for the final decision on the investigation." Russia and Qatar "started work on infrastructure projects" to prepare for football's 32-nation showpiece (BLOOMBERG, 9/5). REUTERS' Brian Homewood reported FIFA said that during the course of the year-long investigation, Garcia and Borbely interviewed "more than 75 witnesses and compiled a record that, in addition to audio recordings from interviews, includes more than 200,000 pages of relevant material." FIFA said that "all bidding nations were interviewed during the investigation" (REUTERS, 9/5).
