By Andrew Warshaw, Chief Correspondent
March 5 – Michel d’Hooghe, FIFA’s longest-standing executive committee member and head of its medical committee, has expressed his relief at being cleared of any misconduct in the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups and says he just wants to get on with what he has been doing for the last 27 years.
After a lengthy investigation prompted by Michael Garcia’s notorious report into potential wrongdoing, several unfounded allegations against D’Hooghe were dismissed a week ago by Fifa’s ethics committee, bringing an end to what the 69-year-old Belgian doctor had described as the hardest period of his life.
D’Hooghe, who has steadfastly maintained his innocence and that he co-operated fully with Garcia’s inquiry, is unwilling to criticise those who carried out the investigation or the process by which he was named for fear of re-opening public debate.
But he nevertheless made his feelings clear as he broke his silence in an interview with InsideWorldFootball.
“The ethics committee has decided the case is closed and I respect that though naturally I am relieved that at last they have seen that what I said was the absolute truth,” said d’Hooghe. “Now I have to look to the future. My job is medicine, not politics.”
D’Hooghe was one of five high-profile officials facing disciplinary action along with Spain’s FIFA vice-president Ángel María Villar Llona, Thailand’s Worawi Makudi (both exco members), German legend Franz Beckenbauer who also voted four years ago but has since retired from FIFA; and Chile’s Harold Mayne-Nicholls, who led the FIFA technical inspection team that evaluated all nine candidates.
So far, no there has been no update from Fifa in terms of when the inquiry into the remaining four might be concluded one way or the other. “I cannot speak for the others but what I can say is that I collaborated 100 percent,” said d’Hooghe.
While he is at pains to keep a low profile, one subject on which d’Hooghe has never been afraid to speak his mind publicly is the timing of the Qatar World Cup.
He has long insisted that playing the 2022 tournament in mid-summer is a non-starter and fully supports the recent recommendation by Fifa’s 2022 World Cup Task Force to switch the event to November-December.
“I have been very consistent about this,” said d’Hooghe. “I have no problem about playing in Qatar but not in the hottest months of the year. I have never said it must be winter, I just said not the hottest months.”
Even with Qatar’s much-trumpeted cooling techniques to protect the players?
“It’s not so much the players but everyone else,” explained d’Hooghe. “The 32 delegations, the media, the fans and the thousands of people working at the tournament in areas like ticketing and transport. “
Fifa’s executive committee is expected later this month to rubber-stamp November-December and d’Hooghe added: “From the medical side, I would be happy with that.”
While critics of a winter World Cup point to the fact that the vote in December, 2010, was for a traditional summer tournament, d’Hooghe said the small print allowed for any change.
“In the statutes of Fifa it is marked that ‘in principle’ (it should be) in the summer. If it always had to be played in June and July, many countries in the world would not even have a chance to put their names forward as hosts. Just because something has always happened until now, does that mean it always has to be the same in the future?”
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