By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent
October 1 – FIFA’s leading corruption buster has admitted for the first time in several months that he is stepping up his investigation into the World Cup bidding process for 2018 and 2022. In the week when FIFA is due to decide whether to move the 2022 event in Qatar to winter, Michael Garcia, head of the investigatory arm of FIFA’s ethics committee, has revealed he plans to visit every 2018 and 2022 bidding candidate to see whether any campaign rules were broken.
According to France Football magazine, Garcia’s tour will begin in London on October 9, co-incidentally the day when world football’s influential movers and shakers converge on the capital for the annual Leaders in Football conference.
Until now, Garcia has been mainly reliant on those with relevant information to approach him – rather than the other way round.
But his decision to conduct interviews with the main players in a race that was ultimately won by Russia for 2018 and Qatar for 2022 would appear to represent an escalation in the effort to weed out any wrongdoing.
According to France Football, Garcia is expected to deliver his conclusions by March or April next year.
Although he refused to comment on the specifics of his initiative, Garcia told France Football: “My objective will be to present a report that covers both the process of bidding and the hosting award.”
Garcia’s tour, which will conclude with a visit to Russia and Qatar, will be viewed in some quarters as a blow to the latter which has been virtually under siege ever since winning a landslide victory in December 2010.
FIFA’s executive committee will vote on Friday on whether to agree in principle on a motion to move 2022 to winter despite fierce objections from professional leagues, broadcasters and losing bidders.
Australia’s bid leader Frank Lowy has already said that he will press for compensation – likely to be thrown out by FIFA – while reports both in Europe and the United States suggest meetings have already been held between broadcasters and FIFA over a combination of a rights/financial deal if the World Cup ends up clashing with the NFL season.
While Qatar spent a fortune on its bid, it has always insisted its conduct was entirely above board. The grey area of whether it violated FIFA’s code of ethics by exerting undue influence on voting executive committee members will be key to Garcia’s inquiry. And presumably this will apply to the losing bidders as well.
For example, it is common knowledge that Qatar sponsored the 2010 Confederation of African Football congress in Angola, fertile ground for vote-gathering. Questionable though that might have been, it was deemed perfectly above board. Similarly the English bid team rolled out David Beckham and his academy coaches at the FIFA Women’s U17 World Cup final in Trinidad in a bid to win over the Caribbean votes, with Beckham going on to make a number of personal appearances. Again, questionable though that might have been, it was again deemed above board.
So where, and is it possible, for Garcia to draw a clearly distinguishable line between what is acceptable influence and what breaches the FIFA ethics code?
There is a further question hanging over Garcia. He previously excluded himself from the investigation of banned FIFA executive committee member Chuck Blazer on the basis of them both being US nationals and there being a conflict of interest.
The relevation that he is now going to be approaching all the 2018 and 2022 bid nations will presumably include the US bid, which had former US president Bill Clinton as their senior political figure on the team and may have the most to gain from the ballot three years ago being overturned.
Does this constitute an even bigger conflict for Garcia than the Blazer investigation? Garcia has not declared that he has excluded himself from this aspect of the investigation to date.
Back in May Garcia denied that pressure had been put on him to come up with fresh evidence in the way Qatar behaved during the bid process. “Absolutely not, not in any sense,” he said. “There is no public request but I am looking at the whole aspect of that procedure,” he said.
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