FIFA Reject Garcia Report Appeal

FIFA dismiss Michael Garcia’s appeal against World Cup bid investigation summary

FIFA has dismissed ethics prosecutor Michael Garcia’s appeal challenging how his World Cup bid investigation was handled.

FIFA says Garcia’s appeal was ruled “not admissible.”
Garcia had objected to ethics judge Joachim Eckert’s summary of the World Cup bid investigation, claiming “numerous materially incomplete and erroneous representations” of his work.
Eckert sought to close down the case against all nine bidding candidates.

Russia won the right to host the World Cup in 2018 and Qatar won the vote for the 2022 tournament.

However, FIFA says Eckert’s report “does not constitute a decision ... and as such is neither legally binding nor appealable.”
It is unclear if Garcia can now take his appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Meanwhile, the FIFA disciplinary panel has dismissed complaints by two whistleblowers, including a former Football Federation Australian employee, who were interviewed during the 2018-2022 World Cup bid investigation.
FIFA says panel chairman Claudio Sulser ruled that the whistleblowers’ “breach of confidentiality claim had no substance.”
The FIFA statement did not identify Bonita Mersiades, who worked for Australia’s campaign or Phaedra Almajid, a former Qatar bid staffer.
Both worked in communications for their countries’ 2022 bids and left before the December 2010 vote.
Sulser ruled that both women “had gone public with their own media activities long before” FIFA ethics judge Joachim Eckert’s investigation summary was published last month.
Eckert’s report also did not name them.