FIFA "lodged a criminal complaint with the Swiss attorney general based on the findings of an investigation into the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar," according to Tariq Panja of BLOOMBERG. FIFA said in a statement the complaint was about “the possible misconduct of individual persons” in connection with the process without identifying the people. FIFA President Sepp Blatter lodged the complaint with the attorney general’s office in Bern on the recommendation of FIFA Ethics Committee Head Hans-Joachim Eckert. Eckert "reviewed the findings of a yearlong investigation by former U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia." (BLOOMBERG, 11/18). ESPN reported Garcia sought a meeting with Eckert after Eckert last week released a summary of Garcia's investigation into World Cup bidding that the former U.S. federal prosecutor calls "incomplete and erroneous." Blatter "refused to name anyone in the statement." Blatter said, "I lodged the criminal complaint upon the recommendation of Judge Eckert. I cannot, however, comment on any possible criminal offences. I am not a lawyer. I also was not the addressee of the investigatory report, which I have never seen. However, given Judge Eckert's recommendation, it was my duty -- as the president of FIFA -- to lodge the complaint." Blatter also said that "he did not doubt the thoroughness of the work done by the ethics committee." He stressed that FIFA "has no plans to make the Garcia report public" (ESPN, 11/18).
