Criminal Complaint Latest Twist in Flawed FIFA World Cup Bidding Probe

(ATR) The world football's governing body has submitted a criminal complaint to Switzerland's attorney general in Berne.

It follows a recommendation from Hans-Joachim Eckert, chairman of the adjudicatory chamber of FIFA’s ethics committee, into the findings of Michael Garcia’s 18-month probe into possible corruption in the bidding process that led to Russia and Qatar securing the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

"The subject of the criminal complaint is the possible misconduct of individual persons in connection with the awarding of the hosting rights of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups investigated by Michael Garcia, chairman of the investigatory chamber of the FIFA Ethics Committee," FIFA said in a statement.

"In particular there seem to be grounds for suspicion that, in isolated cases, international transfers of assets with connections to Switzerland took place, which merit examination by the criminal prosecution authorities."

The move could lead to punishments for some of the current FIFA ExCo members, who voted on the World Cup hosts in December 2010.

FIFA said the reports compiled by Michael Garcia and Cornel Borbély, deputy ethics chief, would be made available to the Office of the Attorney General via Eckert.

Eckert is under fire after last week clearing both tournament hosts of wrongdoing in the bidding contest, claiming there was insufficient evidence to warrant a re-vote or relocating the World Cups.

His 42-page summary of Garcia’s 430-page bid investigation was quickly disowned by the former US attorney who said it contained "numerous materially incomplete and erroneous representations". Garcia's comments shredded the credibility of FIFA’s so-called "robust" World Cup bid probe and undermined the German judge’s integrity.

Eckert has defended his summary of Garcia’s report.

"I would like to point out that not once did my statement involve a so-called "whitewashing" of the award process with regard to the various allegations and assumptions made, contrary to what has been claimed in some quarters," Eckert said in a statement released last night.

"My statement was based on the Garcia report – I can only work with the material contained in it, and in my view, there was insufficient clear evidence of illegal or irregular conduct that would call into question the integrity of the award process as a whole."

He added: "In my opinion, there is insufficient incriminating evidence to justify calling into question the entire award process. Nevertheless, there are indications of potential illegal or irregular conduct in certain areas, which must now be followed up both internally by FIFA and by the relevant national criminal prosecution authorities."

Although he has supposedly closed the case on corruption in the World Cup bidding process, Eckert confirmed that his work was not finished in relation to the Garcia findings.

"The investigatory chamber of the ethics committee will commence proceedings against individuals based on its report," he added. "The final reports of these individual proceedings will be submitted to the adjudicatory chamber of the ethics committee, which will then decide how the adjudicatory chamber should proceed."

Meanwhile, in a Q&A on FIFA.com with president Sepp Blatter, the 78-year-old Swiss said the ethics committee "has done all it possibly could under the FIFA Statutes to shed light on the issues surrounding the awarding of the World Cups", adding that the federation’s legal powers "are obviously exhausted at some point".

Blatter claimed FIFA’s filing of a criminal complaint to the Swiss attorney general "of course" represented his commitment towards transparency on the bidding probe.

"If we had anything to hide, we would hardly be taking this matter to the Office of the Attorney General. FIFA’s internal bodies have done all they can within the scope of their capabilities, and they are continuing with their work. The matter will now also be looked at by an independent, state body, which shows that FIFA is not opposed to transparency," he said.

The FIFA chief maintained that Garcia’s report could not be published in full because FIFA would be violating its own code of ethics "as well as state law".

Written by Mark Bisson

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