By Andrew Warshaw
December 17 – FIFA was plunged into renewed crisis and confusion when its ethics investigator Michael Garcia sensationally resigned today in protest over the handling of his report into possible corruption during the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bid process.
After weeks of claim and counter-claim and all manner of twists and turns over whether to publish Garcia’s 430-page report, the American lawyer cited a “lack of leadership” within FIFA, heaping more pressure on FIFA president Sepp Blatter who hoped Garcia’s probe would show FIFA in a new, transparent light but who now sees his organisation under greater scrutiny than ever.
Garcia was appointed in 2011 as head of the investigatory arm of FIFA’s ethics committee as part of the reform process being undertaken by the governing body. His major investigation has been into the fierce allegations of bribery and collusion surrounding the bidding for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups that took 18 months to complete, speaking to some 75 witnesses in the process.
But in recent weeks, he found himself up against a brick wall, losing patience over FIFA’s perceived intransigence and particularly with his fellow ethics committee colleague, adjudicatory chamber chief Hans-Joachim Eckert, accusing the German judge of misrepresenting his own findings in his 42-page summary of the full report.
Eckert took the view that any rule-breaking was of limited scope and had not influenced the outcome or ‘integrity’ of the vote in December 2010 that handed Russia the 2018 World Cup and Qatar the 2022 event. Garcia clearly disagreed and when his appeal against Eckert’s version of his report was thrown out, he decided he had enough and threw in the towel.
“The Eckert decision made me lose confidence in the independence of the Adjudicatory Chamber, it is the lack of leadership on these issues within FIFA that leads me to conclude that my role in this process is at an end,” Garcia said in his resignation which came on the eve of FIFA’s final executive committee meeting of the year, in Marrakesh, which has now taken on additional significance.
“Accordingly, effective today, December 17, 2014, I am resigning as independent Chairman of the Investigatory Chamber of the FIFA Ethics Committee.”
Hinting that nothing had radically changed at FIFA, Garcia’s statement added: “No independent governance committee, investigator, or arbitration panel can change the culture of an organisation.”
Garcia also revealed that the FIFA executive committee tried to have disciplinary proceedings opened against him in September for “allegedly violating the Code of Ethics through my public comments”. The attempt was rejected by the chairman of FIFA’s disciplinary panel.
Garcia’s appointment was a key part of the process of FIFA showing to the world it was serious about reform. Garcia’s resignation will likely have entirely the opposite effect, even undoing perceptions of much of the effective work Garcia had already achieved in the cleansing process. Dominico Scala, who heads FIFA’s audit and compliance committee, is due to brief exco members on Friday in terms of what parts of Garcia’s report are legally publishable.
What happens to those discussions must now be open to question whilst the status of separate disciplinary cases into five senior FIFA officials brought by Garcia’s department, four of whom took part in the controversial ballot World Cup four years ago, is unclear.
“For the first two years … I felt that the ethics committee was making real progress in advancing ethics enforcement at FIFA,” Garcia wrote. “In recent months, that changed.”
“(W)hen viewed in the context of the report it purported to summarise, no principled approach could justify the Eckert Decision’s edits, omissions, and additions.”
“It now appears that, at least for the foreseeable future, the Eckert Decision will stand as the final word on the 2018/2022 FIFA World Cup bidding process,” Garcia wrote.
He said he would not pursue his appeal against Eckert at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, saying: “Such a course of action would not be practicable in this case.”
UEFA president Michel Platini was one of the first to react as he poured scorn on FIFA. “”FIFA’s ethics committee was created to increase transparency at the organisation, that’s what we wanted, but in the end it has just caused more confusion. Mr. Garcia’s resignation is a new failure for FIFA,” said Platini.
Garcia issued his resignation statement through his Chicago-based law firm Kirkland & Ellis: It read:
For the first two years after my July 2012 appointment as independent Chairman of the FIFA Ethics Committee’s Investigatory Chamber, I felt that the Ethics Committee was making real progress in advancing ethics enforcement at FIFA. In recent months, that changed.
On September 5, 2014, I and Cornel Borbely, the Deputy Chair of the Investigatory Chamber, sent a “Report on the Inquiry into the 2018/2022 FIFA World Cup Bidding Process” (the “Report”) to the FIFA Ethics Committee’s Adjudicatory Chamber.
The Report identified serious and wide-ranging issues with the bidding and selection process (Mr Borbely also filed separate reports from his inquiries into the activities of the bid teams from Russia and the United States).
Soon after, the chairman of the Adjudicatory Chamber, Hans-Joachim Eckert, indicated publicly that only limited information from the Report would be made public.
Concerned that insufficient transparency would not serve FIFA’s interests, I issued a public statement calling on the FIFA Executive Committee to authorize the appropriate publication of the Report.
The Executive Committee took no action on this subject during its September 2014 meetings – other than to refer me to the FIFA Disciplinary Committee for allegedly violating the Code of Ethics through my public comments, namely, my public request that the Executive Committee authorize appropriate publication of the Report and the on-the-record statement Mr Borbely and I released concerning watches given to certain football officials.
Rejection . . .
The chairman of the Disciplinary Committee, Claudio Sulser, ultimately rejected the Executive Committee’s referral.
On November 13, 2014, Mr. Eckert issued a 42-page “Statement of the Chairman of the Adjudicatory Chamber of the FIFA Ethics Committee on the Report on the Inquiry into the 2018/2022 FIFA World Cup Bidding Process prepared by the Investigatory Chamber of the FIFA Ethics Committee” (the “Eckert Decision”).
In a cover letter, Mr. Eckert described the statement as his “findings, including certain descriptions of the contents of the Investigatory Chamber’s report.”
The issues raised by Mr. Eckert’s selection and omission of material from the Report, and his additional comments, went far beyond the initial transparency concerns. As my public statement at the time explained, the Eckert Decision contained “numerous materially incomplete and erroneous representations of facts and conclusions.” Accordingly, I appealed.
A brief I filed with the FIFA Appeal Committee on November 24, 2014, outlined the Eckert Decision’s most serious failings. Among other points, the brief explained why, when viewed in the context of the Report it purported to summarize, no principled approach could justify the Eckert Decision’s edits, omissions, and additions.
Yesterday’s decision by the Appeal Committee declined to address these points. Instead, the Appeal Committee rejected my appeal on procedural grounds, concluding that “it is not necessary for the FIFA Appeals Committee to enter into considerations on the substance of the appeal.”
‘Personal opinion’ . . .
The Appeal Committee found that the Eckert Decision was “merely a personal opinion on the Report” and had “no legally binding effect whatsoever.”
It reached this conclusion even though, under Article 36 of the Code of Ethics, only “final decisions” may be made public, as the Eckert Decision, which was published on FIFA’s website, obviously was.
The Appeal Committee also overlooked the Eckert Decision’s self-described “findings,” including one stating that “the evaluation of the 2018/2022 FIFA World Cups bidding process is closed for the FIFA Ethics Committee.”
FIFA President Blatter recently reaffirmed that “finding” during an interview published by FIFA, stating: “Furthermore, there is no change to Judge Eckert’s statement that the investigation into the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups is concluded.”
I disagree with the Appeal Committee’s decision.
Final word . . .
It now appears that, at least for the foreseeable future, the Eckert Decision will stand as the final word on the 2018/2022 FIFA World Cup bidding process.
While the Appeal Committee’s decision notes that further appeal may be taken to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, I have concluded that such a course of action would not be practicable in this case.
No independent governance committee, investigator, or arbitration panel can change the culture of an organization. And while the November 13, 2014, Eckert Decision made me lose confidence in the independence of the Adjudicatory Chamber, it is the lack of leadership on these issues within FIFA that leads me to conclude that my role in this process is at an end.
Accordingly, effective today, December 17, 2014, I am resigning as independent Chairman of the Investigatory Chamber of the FIFA Ethics Committee.
Blatter, who is attending the Club World Cup in Morocco which dovetails with the FIFA Executive Committee meeting, faces the media at the conclusion of the two-day session when he will need all his trademark political skills to offset what is certain to be ferocious questioning.
His initial response was to tell The Associated Press he was “surprised” by Garcia’s resignation and would be discussing it with his top brass when they gather on Thursday. “Listen, we just received this information. I cannot make any comment. I will do it together tomorrow with the Executive Committee,” he said. “I’m just surprised. It’s all what I can say. Just that.”
In the short term, it is understood a temporary replacement can be named for Garcia but only the full FIFA congress can appoint a full-time ethics committee chairman.
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1734831211labto1734831211ofdlr1734831211owedi1734831211sni@w1734831211ahsra1734831211w.wer1734831211dna1734831211