2018, 2022 World Cups set go ahead in Russia, Qatar as planned: FIFA
London, Nov.15: The soccer World Cups of 2018 and 2022 are set go
ahead in Russia and Qatar as planned after FIFA's ethics committee said
on it could find no grounds for reopening the controversial bidding
process. In a long-awaited report, the committee said that "the various
incidents which might have occurred are not suited to compromise the
integrity of the FIFA World Cup 2018/2022 bidding process as a whole".
The report criticised England's bid for the 2018 tournament for
bowing to "inappropriate requests" from former CONCACAF president Jack
Warner, a FIFA powerbroker at the time, in what it said was "an apparent
violation of bidding rules".
It also said that in Australia's bid for 2022 "there are certain
indications of potentially problematic conduct of specific individuals
in the light of relevant FIFA Ethics rules.
"The occurrences at issue were... only of very limited scope," it
added.
"In particular, the effects of these occurrences on the bidding
process as a whole were far from reaching any threshold that would
require returning to the bidding process, let alone reopening it - a
decision which anyway would not fall under the FIFA Ethics Committee's
competence.
"The assessment of the 2018/2022 FIFA World Cups bidding process is
therefore closed for the FIFA Ethics Committee."
However, the report said ethics investigator Michael Garcia intended
to open formal investigations against individuals, who were not named.
FIFA and Qatar World Cup organisers have been fending off allegations of
corruption ever since the Gulf state was awarded the 2022 tournament.
Qatar, which has repeatedly denied the allegations, has also been
criticised over its treatment of migrant workers in the construction
industry. The 2018 tournament was awarded to Russia as part of the same
bidding process which culminated in December 2010.
Not clear
FIFA said in a statement that it welcomed the report and looks
forward to continuing the preparations for Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022,
"which are already well underway".
In the case of Qatar, the report said "there are certain indications
of potentially problematic conduct of specific individuals in the light
of relevant FIFA Ethics rules" which did not compromise the bidding
process. It said that the relationship between former Asian Football
Confederation president Mohamed bin Hammam, banned for life by FIFA in
2011, and the Qatar bidding team was a "distant relative to the
relationships of other FIFA Executive Committee members from bid
nations".
The report said that it could not find any evidence of misconduct
connected to the Russian bid, although it added that not all records had
been available to the investigation.
"The Russia 2018 Bid Committee made only a limited amount of
documents available for review."
"The computers used at the time by the Russia Bid Committee had been
leased and then returned to their owner after the Bidding Process. The
owner has confirmed.
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