FIFA have finally released the Garcia Report after nearly three years into the inquiry of the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding process.
Football’s governing body have previously refused to disclose the report since receiving in two years and nine months ago after Russia and Qatar won in controversial circumstances.
The report – split into three parts on FIFA’s official website boasts 434 pages, sees former FIFA independent ethics investigator Michael Garcia’s work finally revealed.
Previously, only 42-pages from his report were published which he described as “incomplete and erroneous,” but after a leaked copy was sent to German newspaper Bild, FIFA have had no option but to disclose the full copy.
The American lawyer was employed by FIFA in 2012 to investigate the allegations of corruption that surrounded the World Cup bidding process, where he submitted his findings in September 2014.
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In an official statement, FIFA said: “The new chairpersons of the independent Ethics Committee, Maria Claudia Rojas of the investigatory chamber and Vassilios Skouris of the adjudicatory chamber, have decided to publish the Report on the Inquiry into the 2018/2022 FIFA World Cup Bidding Process (the so-called “Garcia Report”).
“This had been called for on numerous occasions by FIFA President Gianni Infantino in the past and also supported by the FIFA Council since its meeting in Mexico City in May 2016.
“Despite these regular requests, it is worth noting that the former chairpersons of the Ethics Committee, Cornel Borbély and Hans-Joachim Eckert, had always refused to publish it.
"The Ethics Committee will meet in its full composition under the new chairpersons for the first time next week, and it was already planned to use this opportunity to discuss the publication of the report.
"However, as the document has been illegally leaked to a German newspaper, the new chairpersons have requested the immediate publication of the full report (including the reports on the Russian and US bid teams, which were conducted by Mr Borbély alone) in order to avoid the dissemination of any misleading information.
"For the sake of transparency, FIFA welcomes the news that this report has now been finally published."
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