FIFA said on Monday that an investigation into the decision to award the 2022 World Cup to Qatar, initially scheduled for completion this month, "is only likely to be finished in September," according to Brian Homewood of REUTERS. A statement issued by FIFA on behalf of its ethics committee on Monday said, "We expect to deliver our report to the adjudicatory chamber by the first week of September 2014." Former United States attorney Michael Garcia "has been leading an internal probe by FIFA's ethics committee into allegations of corruption in the run-up to the vote in December 2010, which awarded the tournament to the Gulf state." When complete, Garcia's report "will be handed to German judge Hans-Joachim Eckert, head of the ethics committee's adjudicatory chamber, and if he finds corruption, Qatar could face a challenge to its position as host either through a re-vote or other processes" (REUTERS, 7/21). The London GUARDIAN reported FIFA has confirmed that the report into possible ethics violations in the World Cup bidding process by Garcia "will not be made public." Only the final decision of the adjudicatory chamber "may be made public" (GUARDIAN, 7/21). In Doha, Lesley Walker wrote "it is not clear why there is a delay in the process." FIFA declined to give a specific timeline of what would happen after the report was submitted, but Garcia said in an interview with a German newspaper this week that "FIFA may not choose to act on the findings until late May of next year" (DOHA NEWS, 7/22).
