GENEVA – Hours after a FIFA judge cleared Russia and Qatar of corruption in their winning World Cup bids, the American who led the investigation said Thursday he would appeal the decision to close the case because it was based on “materially incomplete and erroneous” information.
In what appears to be an open act of conflict within FIFA, prosecutor Michael Garcia criticized ethics judge Joachim Eckert’s 42-page report clearing the 2018 and 2022 World Cup hosts.
Eckert’s findings, which were released Thursday morning, were based on Garcia’s investigation. Despite finding wrongdoing among the 11 bidding nations, Eckert said the integrity of the December 2010 votes was not affected.
The dispute between Garcia and Eckert further fueled the turmoil surrounding FIFA’s decision to give the next two World Cups to Russia and Qatar. Questions about the integrity and validity of the hosting decision have been raised ever since the vote by FIFA’s executive committee.
“Today’s decision by (Eckert) contains numerous materially incomplete and erroneous representations of the facts and conclusions detailed in the Investigatory Chamber’s report,” Garcia said in a statement released by his law firm. “I intend to appeal this decision to the FIFA Appeal Committee.”
Garcia had called for key details of his 430 pages of investigation to be published, provoking clashes with FIFA President Sepp Blatter.
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