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UK government urges FIFA to publish report on World Cup corruption allegations

FIFA has been urged to publish an investigation into World Cup corruption allegations or risk fur...



UK government urges FIFA to pu...
Soccer

UK government urges FIFA to publish report on World Cup corruption allegations

FIFA has been urged to publish an investigation into World Cup corruption allegations or risk further damage to its credibility and the reputation of football.

Sajid Javid, the British Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, has written to FIFA president Sepp Blatter urging him to release "a full account" of the report by US lawyer Michael Garcia.

In his letter Mr Javid says the handling of the Garcia report "calls into question FIFA's independence and transparency" and falls short of the ethical standards it should aspire to.

Mr Javid's intervention, which echoes a similar demand by FA chairman Greg Dyke, comes after FIFA suffered further financial fallout from the affair with the withdrawal of World Cup sponsor Sony.

The Japanese electronics manufacturer, which has been a FIFA partner since 2006, has confirmed it will not renew its partnership following ongoing allegations of wrongdoing in the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding process.

Sony's withdrawal follows a similar decision by airline Emirates earlier this month, and with another major partner Coca-Cola expressing "disappointment" at FIFA's handling of the current crisis.

Report

FIFA had hoped the Garcia report would draw a line under the corrosive aftermath of the 2018 and 2022 World Cup selection four years ago, but events of the last fortnight have done the opposite.

Almost two weeks ago German judge Hans Joachim Eckert, the chairman of FIFA's ethics committee, published a summary of Garcia's report which, he said, provided no grounds for challenging the right of Russia and Qatar to host the 2018 and 2022 tournaments respectively.

Within three hours, however, Mr Garcia disowned judge Eckert's summary, describing it as erroneous and misleading.

Last week the pair met but failed to reach an agreement, calling in the chairman of FIFA's audit and compliance committee to decide whether more information could be released to the executive committee.

Mr Blatter has refused to publish the report citing Swiss law and FIFA's own guarantee of confidentiality to witnesses, but in his letter Mr Javid says it should be possible to release "a full account".

"Without the disclosure of the full report, FIFA risks not just further damage to its own credibility, but now significant damage to the reputation of football as a whole," he writes.

"I understand there are challenges around confidentiality within the report, but this is a challenge faced by many public bodies in conducting their work in an open and transparent way.

"It should not be beyond FIFA, working with those who contributed with an expectation of confidentiality, to publish the full report in a format that does not contravene assurances of confidentiality where they cannot be waived.”

The letter marks Mr Javid's first public intervention in sports politics since he succeeded Maria Mille, who resigned following an expenses scandal in April.

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