Fifa issues full World Cup report on graft

World football body releases account that lead investigator completed in 2014 after newspaper publishes the document

ABU DHABI // Controversy surrounding Qatar’s bid to host the World Cup in 2022 is set to be reignited by the publishing of the full Fifa report into alleged corruption.

The world football body had been withholding the report on the claims of graft that led to the re sig na tion of its lead investigator.

Yesterday, Fifa released the report – completed by American lawyer Michael Garcia in 2014 – on the allegations of bribery regarding the bid ding process in 2010 that led to Russia and Qatar winning the bids to host the world’s second-largest sporting event in 2018 and 2022 respectively.

Fifa published the report after the German news pa per Bild yesterday be gan its two- part publication of the report by Mr Garcia, an independent ethics investigator.

Fifa had pub lished a short summary of Mr Garcia’s report in 2014, which led him to disown it pub lic ly and re sign in protest.

The world football body had kept the full 430-page report secret until Bild claimed to have obtained the document in its entirety.

The full report released by Fifa referred to an array of suspect financial dealings, including US$2 million (Dh7.34m) that San dro Rosell, a con sult ant for Qatar, sent to the bank account of the 10-year-old daughter of a Fifa official before the announcement that Qatar had won the bid to host the World Cup.

The report also revealed that a former Fifa official thanked Qatari football federation members af ter receiving “several thousand euros” after the 2022 decision was announced.

Three of Fifa’s voting executive members also flew to Rio de Janeiro for a private party on a pri vate jet be long ing to the Qa tari fed er a tion before the vote.

Fifa said it was already considering releasing the full report before the latest disclosures. “However, as the document has been il legal ly leaked to a German news pa per, the new chairpersons [of the committee] have re quested the immediate publication of the full report ... to avoid the dissemination of any misleading information,” Fifa said.

“For the sake of transparency, Fifa welcomes the news that this report has now been finally published.”

After Mr Garcia submitted his findings in 2014, Fifa released only a summary, claiming his investigation had found only “potentially problematic facts and cir cum stances” that did not compromise the awarding of the rights to host the football tournament.

Mr Garcia quit and accused Fifa’s ethics judge Hans-Joachim Eckert of “erroneous representations”.

Although it remains unlikely that the publication of Mr Garcia’s full report will be enough to derail Qatar’s hosting of the World Cup, it reveals why European and US law enforcement agencies are pursuing criminal investigations into the bidding process and why several Fifa officials have already been arrested.

The Bild jour nal ist who obtained the report, Peter Rossberg, said the full report “does not provide the proof that the 2018 or 2022 World Cup was bought” but that it was another piece in the larger puzzle of allegedly far-reaching, endemic corruption at Fifa.

Rossberg said there were “no sur pris es” in the full re port because as pects of the bidding process had been partly reported.