FIFA on Tuesday released a long-withheld report on alleged corruption in awarding the 2022 World Cup to Qatar after more leaks deepened the controversy surrounding the vote.
World football’s governing body had previously declined to publish in full the 400-page report into awarding the 2018 World Cup to Russia and the 2022 edition to Qatar drawn up by US independent investigator Michael Garcia.
But FIFA’s hand was forced when German tabloid newspaper Bild said it had obtained the full report and released extracts on Monday, including revelations that a 10-year-old daughter of one FIFA member had received $2 million in her bank account.
FIFA said it was already considering releasing in full Garcia’s findings prior to the latest disclosures.
“However, as the document has been illegally leaked to a German newspaper, the new chairpersons (of the committee) have requested the immediate publication of the full report…in order to avoid the dissemination of any misleading information,” FIFA explained in a statement on its website.
“For the sake of transparency, FIFA welcomes the news that this report has now been finally published.”
Garcia had resigned as head of FIFA’s investigatory body in December 2014 in protest after FIFA released a 40-page sanitised summary of his report which he disowned, describing it as “incomplete and erroneous.”
The full report referred to an array of suspect financial dealings including the sum of $2 million allegedly sent by a consultant for Qatar, Sandro Rosell, to the 10-year-old daughter of a FIFA official.
The payment was described by an associate as the proceeds from a real estate deal.
But Garcia concluded that “no proof exists linking Qatar and this o2 million to the daughter of executive committee member (former Brazil football chief Ricardo Teixeira).”
Rosell is the ex-Barcelona president who is in prison under investigation for money laundering related to the sale of the Brazilian national football team’s television rights.
