December 29 – FIFA presidential candidate Prince Ali bin al-Hussein has once again called for former FIFA ethics investigator Michael Garcia’s report into possible wrongdoing during bidding for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to be published immediately.
Garcia resigned 14 months ago in protest at the way his report, a summary of which was released clearing respective hosts Russia and Qatar of corruption, was handled, denouncing the redacted version as “incomplete and erroneous”.
Prince Ali, one of the presidential candidates to succeed Sepp Blatter on February 26, has focused his campaign on attacking FIFA and says the ongoing corruption scandals make it all the more important for Garcia’s findings into the World Cup bidding for 2018 and 2022 not to be buried.
Despite Prince Ali’s protestations, many of the current and Swiss judicial investigations are a direct result of referrals from the Garcia report. FIFA has said previously that the report will not be published until investigations are completed by its own ethics function but also by Swiss criminal investigators.
Addressing a conference in Dubai, Prince Ali added: “[We need] some basic norms, like publishing the Garcia report immediately, because even those of us who are running for the position of FIFA president need to know what has been going on in this organisation – and the public needs to know as well.”
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