Asian/Australasian Football Discussion

German judge Hans-Joachim Eckert, chairman of the adjudicatory chamber of FIFA's independent ethics committee, authorised the publishing of a 42-page summary of the report, undertaken by former US attorney Michael Garcia, on Thursday night (Australian time). FIFA claims the full report can never be made public due to legal reasons.

But the cut-down version declared Russia and Qatar fully co-operated in the investigation that began in 2012, with Eckert reckoning any problems with the bids to be "of a very limited scope" and "far from reaching any threshold that would require returning to the bidding process, let alone reopening it."

Australia received considerable admonishment, with the bid's "efforts to gain the support of a FIFA executive committee member", investments into development programs in nations where executive committee members lived and contact with the notorious "bid consultants" – Peter Hargitay and Fedor Radmann – all heavily criticised.

"Certain devices employed by the bid team and its consultants were seemingly aimed at hiding ties with individuals close to the executive committee member concerned while taking advantage of their influence over the member to further the bid strategy," the report read. "According to the report, there have been several different occurrences involving the Australia 2022 bid that displayed potentially problematic connections between financial and other support for 'football development' and the bidding process."

Football Federation Australia's bid was slammed for funnelling money into CONCACAF development projects that appeared to be linked to disgraced former confederation president Jack Warner, now banned from football for life. England's 2018 bid was also heavily criticised in the report for attempting to curry favour with Warner, said to control a bloc of influential votes on the executive committee.

The report also fingered Australia for entertaining projects in Oceania in exchange for the vote of then-executive committee member Reynald Teymarii, now also serving a life ban from the game after being outed for corruption by the Sunday Times.

Also mentioned is a plot to redirect Australian government aid money towards nations who could help the bid.

"There are indications that the Australian 2022 bid team attempted to direct funds the Australian government had set aside for existing development projects in Africa towards initiatives in countries with ties to FIFA executive committee members with the intention to advance its bid to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup," the report said.

However, while aspects of Australia's application were described as "potentially problematic", the bid – which garnered just one supporter at the final vote in December 2010 – was cleared of any overall misconduct.

The report acknowledged two meetings with a "whistleblower" who was formerly involved with the Australian bid but said the evidence forthcoming from them "did not support its specific recollections and allegations".

Garcia's report said the whistleblower's evidence provided was "not relied on" in any form: "The relevant individual further undermined its own reliability by speaking with the press about its communications with the investigatory chamber, despite having agreed to refrain from doing so to protect the integrity of the ongoing investigation."

While some of Qatar 2022's activities were described as "potentially problematic", the bid was cleared, as was the Russia 2018 bid.

Only the joint Spain-Portugal bid may be subject to further disciplinary action after failing to adequately assist Garcia's investigative team and "being particularly un-cooperative in responding to the investigatory chamber's requests".

FIFA issued a response accompanying the document which suggested they believed the matter was now closed once and for all.

"FIFA welcomes the fact that a degree of closure has been reached. As such, FIFA looks forward to continuing the preparations for Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022, which are already well underway," the statement read.

"FIFA acknowledges the recommendations mentioned in the statement with regard to improving the bidding process for future FIFA World Cups, but also notes the comments of the chairman of the adjudicatory chamber regarding the bidding process for the 2018/2022 World Cups as 'well-thought, robust and professional'."

Comment was still being sought from the FFA at the time of publication.


www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer/australias-world-cup-bid-team-violated-bidding-and-ethics-rules-20141113-11mczr.html


Australia offered an insufficient bribe?

I suspect we also made Holger coach of our National team, to suck up to Franz Beckenbauer so he would influence the grant of The World Cup to Australia.