FIFA president Sepp Blatter has insisted the investigation into 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding will not be reopened despite the world governing body lodging a criminal complaint with the Swiss attorney general over “suspected unlawful activity” of unnamed individuals connected with the bidding contests.
The report to the Swiss prosecutors follows a recommendation by FIFA’s ethics judge Hans-Joachim Eckert as part of his findings into Michael Garcia’s investigation on World Cup bidding.
Blatter said, however, that the lodging of the criminal complaint does not affect Eckert’s statement last week that the investigation into the bidding process for the two World Cups is concluded.
Blatter said: “There is no change to judge Eckert’s statement that the investigation into the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups is concluded.
“The matter will now also be looked at by an independent, state body, which shows that FIFA is not opposed to transparency.”
The identities of the individuals who have been reported have not been disclosed.
Eckert’s findings released last week did name two people, both former FIFA ethics committee members, as having contravened rules regarding payments: Jack Warner from Trinidad and Tobago, who resigned in disgrace in 2011, and Mohamed bin Hammam, the former Asian confederation president from Qatar who was banned for life by FIFA.
The Garcia report will be handed over to the attorney general’s office by Eckert but he and Blatter remain adamant the report cannot be published.
English FA chairman Greg Dyke on Monday called for “urgent action” by FIFA members to ensure Garcia’s report is published in full.
Asked about the publication of the report, Blatter said: “If FIFA were to publish the report, we would be violating our own association law as well as state law.
"The people who are demanding in the media and elsewhere that FIFA publish the report are obviously of the opinion that FIFA should or must ignore the law in this regard.”
