The U.K.'s Serious Fraud Office is analyzing the FIFA report into the "controversial bidding races" for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, according to the PA. The decisions to award Russia the 2018 World Cup and Qatar the '22 edition "have been dogged by allegations of bribery and corruption." Following the publication of the Garcia Report this week, the SFO is "looking into whether it has cause to act." An SFO spokesperson said, "The SFO is reviewing the Garcia Report. We can make no further comment at this stage" (PA, 6/28). The BBC reported confirmation of the SFO's interest comes "20 months after" its director, David Green, told MPs of "potential money-laundering" offenses, including a payment of A$500,000 made by the Australia 2022 bid committee to Jack Warner -- then a senior FIFA official but "since banned from the game and under investigation" -- which "may have gone through London" (BBC, 6/29).
WARNER WEIGHS IN: In London, Martyn Ziegler reported an "unrepentant" Warner insisted that he asked for "nothing out of the ordinary" from England and other World Cup bidders -- and said that such behavior "will continue" for future FIFA tournaments. The Garcia Report claimed that Warner asked for and received favors from nations bidding for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, including England, "in breach of the rules." Australia paid A$500,000 into his personal account "for a development project." Warner, 74, who is fighting extradition from Trinidad to the U.S., "defended his actions." He said that he had "no concerns about the findings in the Garcia report." Warner: "Nothing in the report that I asked for was out of the ordinary in FIFA for the last 100 years as far as bidding countries are concerned, and these new-found purists in world football today will do the same thing and more next time around" (LONDON TIMES, 6/29).
