FIFA publishes investigative report on bids

After years of intrigue about allegedly corrupt 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding, FIFA published an investigation report Tuesday that showed how voters exploited the murky system.

FIFA published investigator Michael Garcia’s 430-page dossier less than 24 hours after Germany’s biggest-selling daily Bild began reporting extracts.

A Russia bid for the 2018 tournament, backed by Vladimir Putin, gave limited co-operation to Garcia’s team, which found no evidence of undue influence. Putin met six of 22 FIFA voters before the December 2010 elections.

Qatar’s victory over the United States for the 2022 World Cup tested FIFA’s bid rules. The bid team used lavishly funded state and sports agencies, plus advisers who raised Garcia’s suspicions.

“Bid teams operated in an environment where a number of (voters) did not hesitate to exploit a system that in certain respects did not bind them to the same rules applicable to bid teams,” Garcia wrote, noting that some senior FIFA officials “sought to obtain personal favours or benefits.”

Garcia’s work has been overtaken since he delivered it to FIFA’s then-ethics judge in September 2014. A 42-page summary written by German judge Hans Joachim Eckert was published two months later and disputed by Garcia. Their falling-out prompted FIFA to pass the dossier and other evidence to Switzerland’s attorney general.

The true significance of Garcia might only be seen once Swiss authorities have completed their work. It started with suspected money laundering linked to the World Cup bids and extended to other areas of FIFA business.

Around 25 investigations have been launched, the Swiss federal prosecution office said this month, using more than 170 suspect bank transactions as evidence.