November 28 – In a statement to German paper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, FIFA Ethics chief Hans-Joachim Eckert refutes the criticism made by German FA President Wolfgang Niersbach of the ethics process.
With regards to the Investigative Report into the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding, he said: “Unfortunately there are always grey areas in law because facts and assertions can often be assessed differently.” The expectations of the public vis-à-vis the investigators were too high, he said.
Referring to the vote about both tournaments, which were won by Russia and Qatar respectively, the Munich judge confirmed again, that his own summary report had by no means cleared FIFA of all suspicion of wrongdoing.
“That is definitely not the case,” he said. “Neither am I somebody who has a blind understanding for Blatter,” (the FIFA President). Eckert said that his work with FIFA chief investigator Michael Garcia to investigate corruption at the Association was continuing.
Eckert insisted that he would not disallow the publication of the detailed Garcia Report if the FIFA Executive Committee were to legitimise such a decision. “On the contrary,” he said: “I’ll be the first one to say: If transparency is legally possible, then I am in full support of it.”
“But at the moment the publication of the report is not possible,” he concluded.
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