Garcia Report

Former U.S. Attorney Michael J. Garcia led the investigation and supervised the report redaction.

The Garcia Report was an investigation produced by U.S. lawyer Michael J. Garcia into allegations of corruption in world football. On 17 July 2012, in the wake of announced anti-corruption reforms by Sepp Blatter, the president of the world association football governing body FIFA,[1] the organization appointed Garcia as the chairman of the investigative chamber of FIFA Ethics Committee, while German judge Hans-Joachim Eckert was appointed as the chairman of the Ethics Committee's adjudication chamber.[2]

In August 2012, Garcia declared his intention to investigate the bidding process and decision to respectively award the right to host the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cup to Russia and Qatar by the FIFA Executive Committee.[3] Garcia delivered his subsequent 350-page report in September 2014, and Eckert then announced that it would not be made public for legal reasons.[4]

On 13 November 2014, Eckert released a 42-page summary of his findings after reviewing Garcia's report. The summary cleared both Russia and Qatar of any wrongdoing during the bidding for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups,[5] leaving Russia and Qatar free to stage their respective World Cups.[6]

FIFA welcomed "the fact that a degree of closure has been reached," while the Associated Press wrote that the Eckert summary "was denounced by critics as a whitewash."[6] Hours after the Eckert summary was released, Garcia himself criticized it for being "materially incomplete" with "erroneous representations of the facts and conclusions," while declaring his intention to appeal to FIFA's Appeal Committee.[5] On 16 December 2014, FIFA's Appeal Committee dismissed Garcia's appeal against the Eckert summary as "not admissible." FIFA also stated that Eckert's summary was "neither legally binding nor appealable."[7] A day later, Garcia resigned from his role as FIFA ethics investigator in protest of FIFA's conduct, citing a "lack of leadership" and lost confidence in the independence of Eckert from FIFA.[8]

In June 2015, Swiss authorities claimed the report was of "little value".[9]

  1. ^ "Fifa appoints Michael J Garcia to investigate football corruption". Associated Press. 17 July 2012.
  2. ^ "FIFA unveils new crime fighting duo to tackle corruption in soccer". CNN. 17 July 2012.
  3. ^ "FIFA to look into World Cup winning bids". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 26 August 2012.
  4. ^ "FIFA prosecutor Michael Garcia calls for World Cup report to be made public". The Guardian. 24 September 2014.
  5. ^ a b "FIFA corruption report: Who is to blame and what happens now?". BBC. 13 November 2014.
  6. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference APfire was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ "FIFA dismisses complaint from lawyer Michael Garcia over report". BBC. 16 December 2014.
  8. ^ "Michael Garcia: FIFA investigator resigns in World Cup report row". BBC. 17 December 2014.
  9. ^ "Exclusive: Swiss authorities probing FIFA say Garcia report of little help – source", Mark Hosenball, David Ingram. Reuters. 23 June 2015. Retrieved 14 May 2017