FIFA publishes Garcia report on 2018-2022 World Cup bidding

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

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

The full report verified the broad conclusions of a summary of Garcia’s work published by FIFA in November 2014.

A Russia bid 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 ultimate victory over the United States tested FIFA’s bid rules to the limit. The bid team used a full range of lavishly-funded state and sports agencies, plus advisers who raised Garcia’s suspicions.

Garcia’s report was once a holy grail for FIFA critics who hoped it would be explosive and force a re-run of the World Cup hosting votes.

Many believed Russian and Qatari bids must have behaved badly to persuade a FIFA executive committee lineup in 2010 that has since been widely discredited.

“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.”

Still, it was clear even before a globe-trotting 2013-14 probe by Garcia’s team that they would he hampered by limited powers to gather evidence.