A decision in the 2018 and 2022 World Cups bidding corruption inquiry is unlikely until next spring, says Fifa's ethics chief Hans-Joachim Eckert.

 

Call me a cynic but is UEFA hoping that by delaying things the allegations of corruption will be forgotten.

 

Jump media player

Media player help

 

Out of media player. Press enter to return or tab to continue.

No ruling until spring 2015 - Hans-Joachim Eckert, Fifa judge

He said he would finish examining Garcia's report by the "end of October, beginning of November".

Eckert added: "I am now doing a statement on the report and then Mr Garcia will be working further.

"There will be some decisions, maybe in spring, and then we will go on."

German judge Eckert, the chair of the adjudicatory chamber of Fifa's ethics committee, says he will limit his verdicts to individuals, disappointing Fifa critics who want him to order re-votes into Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022 after allegations of corruption.

He added that such a decision would be for Fifa's ruling executive committee or its congress of 209 federations.

"The judgement may be the base for a decision in sports politics, but we will not make any recommendations. That is not our job," he said.

Eckert insisted that no-one at Fifa had read the confidential reports from Garcia, the chair of the investigatory chamber of the ethics committee, and they will "never" be made public.

He said only four people had seen the files — himself, Garcia, and their deputies, Australian judge Alan Sullivan and Swiss prosecutor Cornel Borbely.

Analysis from BBC chief sports correspondent Dan Roan

"In giving his first comments on a case that will define Fifa's attempts to repair its battered image, Eckert has pushed back the expected deadline for decisions. That, the refusal by Fifa to reveal what evidence Mr Garcia has unearthed, and the fact Eckert does not have the power to order any re-vote, will dismay many fans and stakeholders who are desperate for clarity as soon as possible on the next two World Cups."

"We are not allowed to tell anybody anything. It's our duty not to tell. I know the interests of the public but please, we have to do our work, we are bound by the code of ethics and later the decision will be made public," Eckert said.

"I will not be the guy to be pressed, to feel pressed. It's my job for 40 years doing cases like that. You will have to wait and I will read."

Garcia spent almost a year interviewing officials involved in the bids. The contests were dogged by allegations of bribery and voting collusion.

Speaking at the same conference, Garcia urged "greater transparency" in the implementation of the Fifa code of ethics, and suggested it should be changed.

"The goal has to be instilling confidence in the process beyond any particular result," he said.

"So what do we think is still missing; why do we still have something of a disconnect? What we need at this point is greater transparency into the process while continuing to protect the rights of all parties, transparency into charges, to decisions, and to the basis for those decisions and to the facts.

"Deterrents that are based more on a sentence or a ban, but on reading the facts of the case. That's the type of system that instils confidence in the stakeholders.

"And I hope as this code is studied, applied, and it may even be revised, that it will be possible to have that type of transparency."

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/sep/22/fifa-qatar-2022-world-cup-theo-zwanziger

 

Germans tend to make the most sense these days.

Edited September 22, 201411 yr by Butterhampton FC

So the FIFA Ethics committee has had an investigation into these world cups, but their conclusions will never be published or seen by the media or public. Yeah, that sounds completely un dodgy.....

It's quite terrible. FIFA is disgustingly nepotistic and self-serving.

Edited September 23, 201411 yr by Butterhampton FC

The latest in the World Cup 2022 fiasco. According to the article below from the BBC Website the Winter Olympics of 2022 may have to be moved to accommodate the World Cup of 2022. Now whether that happens or not it is more proof of the incompetence, lack of planning and corruption within FIFA.

 

Jump media player

Media player help

 

Out of media player. Press enter to return or tab to continue.

World Cup 2022: Pundits debate Qatar 2022 alternative dates

Blatter is an IOC member and it is thought that any disruption to the 2022 Games could jeopardise football's status as an Olympic sport.

AC Milan director Gandini represents the 200-member ECA on a Fifa panel which is seeking ways to avoid playing in the desert heat of June and July 2022, and which met for the first time in Zurich last month.

"As a European view, the first reaction was 'if we have to move it, January/February is the best option', because it will have a reduced effect on the European game because many of the leagues are on winter breaks; it would make things a a little bit more logical," he said.

"It's not impossible for the Winter Olympics to shift over 15 days for example - so if we're going to find a solution it must be not just for the football world but for the sporting world."

The 2022 Games will be held in either Beijing or Almaty after Oslo pulled out of the race to stage the event last week.

Gandini suggested that Europe's top clubs were concerned that Fifa was rushing into a decision without proper consideration of the ramifications.

"If you were at the meeting at Fifa you felt it was a decision," he continued.

"The impression you have is that 'solution number one' is November/December 2022. It was very important that Europe just put their foot in the door and said 'wait a second, it's going to be very, very difficult for the European leagues', so we want to think about that very clearly."

The task-force set up by Fifa to decide on the best date for the 2022 World Cup features a variety of stakeholders including clubs, leagues and player representatives, and will meet again in November before a final decision next year.

Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al-Khalifa, president of the Asian Football Federation, has been charged with heading up the task force alongside Fifa secretary-general Jerome Valcke.

Meanwhile, Gandini is the latest official to say he would like the report by former US attorney Michael Garcia into the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup tournaments to be published.

Fifa has no plans at present to publish the report but Gandini said: "I'd like to read it, yes."

http://www.espnfc.com/fifa-world-cup/story/2076135/theo-zwanziger-europe-could-lose-world-cup-spot-to-africa

 

 

 

 "[FIFA] President Sepp Blatter knows that the majority is behind him when it comes to a redistribution of the 32 World Cup starting berths in favour of Africa," Zwanziger told Sport Bild. "I'd like to think that Europe will have one less in the end."

 

Europe could lose a World Cup place to Africa? I'm from neither continent and I can still realize how incompetent this is.

 

African nations fail to perform at the World Cup, while European nations have won four of the last five competitions. Africa and Asia have about the same number of countries, Africa has 54 states and Asia has 49, and Africa has one more representative at the World Cup than Asia. Europe has so many more representatives because they have so many good footballing nations. This will be another crime by FIFA if they choose to take away a spot from Europe. Europe has about 15-20 really entertaining and good sides will Africa might have 6 tops, and those 6 are nowhere near the quality of Europe's top 15.

This is just getting worse and worse.

 

http://www.espnfc.com/fifa-world-cup/story/2100335/play-qatar-2022-world-cup-games-at-1am-suggests-potential-sepp-blatter-fifa-presidency-rival-harold-mayne-nicholls

 

 

 

An official considering a challenge to Sepp Blatter for the FIFA presidency has suggested 1 a.m. kick-off times could solve the problem of avoiding the heat in Qatar during the 2022 World Cup.

 

 

"You could play the first games at 7 p.m., the second games at 10 p.m. and the third matches at 1 a.m.," the former Chile FA president said. "You'd change everything. It would be a couple of hours behind in Europe, and that would help TV."

He added: "The weather would still be very warm at night, but the sun is not there and that could help. I know it's not easy. We'd sleep during the day and work during the night."

Strikes me that FIFA is trying everything to keep the World Cup in Qatar. What next?

The only other option is an all-out boycott. Of both World Cups. What will FIFA do then? Force them to compete?

It still bemuses me how Qatar obtained the hosting right of the 2022 World Cup. It just proves how much of a farcical FIFA is.

 

Someone like Australia should have hosted it instead even though it would have disadvantaged European nations in terms of time slots for television purposes. 

It still bemuses me how Qatar obtained the hosting right of the 2022 World Cup. It just proves how much of a farcical FIFA is.

 

Someone like Australia should have hosted it instead even though it would have disadvantaged European nations in terms of time slots for television purposes. 

I think that most of Australia is on the same time zone as Soth Korea and Japan where the World Cup was in 2002. Did mean showing games at early hours in Europe. If I remember correctly, England's earliest game was at 7.30 which wasn't too bad. I remember taking the 5.45 train to work that day. It's normally not that busy but on that day it was packed with people going into Central London to watch the game at work or in pubs and cafes.

I think that most of Australia is on the same time zone as Soth Korea and Japan where the World Cup was in 2002. Did mean showing games at early hours in Europe. If I remember correctly, England's earliest game was at 7.30 which wasn't too bad. I remember taking the 5.45 train to work that day. It's normally not that busy but on that day it was packed with people going into Central London to watch the game at work or in pubs and cafes.

You're correct on time zones. In terms of time zones, the capitals of Seoul and Tokyo are about two hours behind Australia in the area of Australia I live in.

 

I'd love to see it come down here but I've conceded that this isn't the case and it seems like FIFA is intent on making sure that the World Cup in Qatar goes ahead even if things have to change such as playing the World Cup in January and having the kick-offs during the evening for example. Such a farce though. 

Nobody saw this coming:

 

Fifa’s ethics investigator has not uncovered any evidence that would justify stripping Qatar of the 2022 World Cup – but has heavily criticised the England 2018 bid team’s conduct.

 

I hope this isn't the end of it, but it seems inevitable that they will plough ahead with the Qatar World Cup despite all of the reasons against it because to do otherwise would effectively be admitting that they are corrupt to the core. 

mmm...the stench continues...so the country that has been most outspoken about fifa being corrupt has more of a reprimand than the one that was awarded the tournament, under to put it mildly, hugely suspicious circumstances...this report has as much credibility as Arsenal's title bid

Edited November 13, 201411 yr by The Brit

I am not really that bothered about where and when it is held, the players and fans will cope I am sure.

 

What upsets me is that I am highly unlikely to see a world cup in my beloved country where Football is a huge part of my life and unlike a lot of you (Although I understand your sentiment) my national team means as much to me as my club.

 

Sepp Blatter on the other hand is like some annoying people I have worked with over the years no matter what they do they somehow come up smelling of roses and deflect the blame elsewhere..... I really struggle to believe we were the most corrupt nation in bidding to host a world cup.  

 

 

it's bollox mate...and so is the fact the inventors of the game have hosted just one tournament and that was nearly 50 years ago now...always get the feeling there is a huge amount of jealousy, bitterness and envy about everything we do from the size of our premier league to our media, which can be tosh at times, but in this case was the only one to expose fifa for what they are...there was no way that fifa were going to go back on their decision to award qatar the tournament because it would be a public admission of guilt, so the report was never going to go to great lengths to prove otherwise...making us look the crooked ones was a spiteful act of revenge...

I want to point out, I'm not arrogant enough to think the World Cup shouldn't be staged at new venues, but the fact Mexico, Germany Brazil, France and Italy have already hosted it more than once exposes for me what a joke fifa's supposed stance is...I'm confident we would host one of the great world cups, just as 2012 olympics and euro 96 was a massive success...but due to dodgy politics, it won't happen

So FIFA investigate their own procedure and find nothing wrong, except for the bit about the country who dared question them. Yeah, that sounds fair.

 

Oh and this has just happened, this is gonna be fun:-

 

FIFA shambles, investigator Garcia says Eckert findings contain "numerous materially incomplete and erroneous representations of the facts"

Garcia is disowning the Fifa summary of his report. So an internal appeal against an internal summary of an internal investigation.

BREAKING: Michael Garcia will appeal decision made by German judge in FIFA World Cup 2018 and 2022 investigation
 

What the hell is going on? Have Fifa just summarised/released info about what they want?

FIFA are so incompetent that they can't even be corrupt properly....yet we all know this won't change a damn thing.

FIFA is such a mess and that dick Blatter needs to piss off, he's no good to the game at all.

It's like watching an episode of the apprentice, when you see dimwits screwing up time and time again, except no-one responsible gets fired at the end

FIFA is such a mess and that dick Blatter needs to piss off, he's no good to the game at all.

I honestly think he's clinging because when he goes all the sh*t will come out, and he's screwed. Strange how every time there's a vote his opponents decide to stand down isn't it.

Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich was reportedly spied on by MI6 during an investigation into Russia's controversial 2018 World Cup bid.

The nation's bid is accused of being riddled with corruption after The Sunday Times released a 13-page dossier regarding the alleged conduct during the process.

According to The Independent, it has been claimed that Abramovich was part of a 'select group of oligarchs' picked by Russian president Vladimir Putin to make sure that the bid was successful.

A former MI6 agent told The Sunday Times that Abramovich held private meetings with FIFA president Sepp Blatter.

So the plot thickens...

Garcia has resigned over FIFA's handling of his World Cup Bidding Report. What next in the World Cup fiasco.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/30522170

 

Fifa: Michael Garcia resigns in World Cup report row

Fifa's independent ethics investigator Michael Garcia has resigned in protest over the handling of his World Cup bidding report.

Garcia's findings were released as a 42-page summary by Fifa-appointed independent judge Hans-Joachim Eckert.

But American lawyer Garcia said the summary was "erroneous" and complained to world governing body Fifa, which said his appeal was "not admissible".

Garcia investigated the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

More to follow