GIVEN GREEN LIGHT FROM FIFA

privacy agreements have been protected. The eventual published report is likely to be a damp squib, soft on Russian and Qatari transgressions, while focusing on individual ethics codes violations. England’s doomed 2018 bid is likely to remain in the firing line, as it was in Eckert’s disputed summary of Garcia’s work. FIFA will also wait until the personal investigations ordered by Garcia are completed before publishing. The investigations into five individuals suspected of breaching the code will now be carried out by Garcia’s successor as FIFA ethics investigator, Cornel Borbely. Those under the microscope are German football great and former FIFA executive member Franz Beckenbauer, three current members of the FIFA executive; Spain’s Angel Maria Villar Llona, Belgium’s Michael D’Hooghe and Worawi Makudi of Thailand, as well as Chilean Harold Mayne-Nicholls, who led the delegation assessing the 2018 and 2022 bids. Only six of the 25-strong executive had been expected to support Garcia’s publication before they convened here. So Blatter was overjoyed to sway the doubters not to oppose the transparency. Even the three still being probed by FIFA, who have the most to lose, agreed not to rock the boat. Germany’s Theo Zwanziger was the most vocal in favour of publication. But, as it turned out, there was no need for a vote or for his motion to be debated. The executive were happy to rely on the recommendation of compliance chief Domenico Scala, who considered there was nothing big enough in it to warrant a re-vote. Scala had taken legal advice from Swiss professor Anton Heini and German professor Martin Nolte, who are now the seventh and eighth people to have seen the full Garcia findings. Scala said: ‘There is nothing in the report that says a re-vote is needed.’ He recommended FIFA should never again vote for two World Cup stagings at the same time and suggested rules should be tightened regarding gift protocol, friendly match procedures and the roles of bid consultants. He also said promotion of football development projects outside the bid country should stop, there should be official audits of bids and a legal obligation to store documents. Russia scandalously said their leased bid computers had been returned and all information destroyed when Garcia investigated.