The man
tasked with investigating the World Cup bidding process for the 2018 and 2022
tournaments resigned Wednesday, plunging world football into turmoil.
Michael
Garcia's resignation followed world governing body FIFA's decision to throw out
his appeal after he complained about the way his report into the bidding
process had been summarized by German judge Hans-Joachim Eckert -- FIFA's
independent ethics adjudicator. Continue...
"I
disagree with the Appeal Committee's decision," said the American lawyer
Garcia -- the chairman of the Investigatory Chamber of the FIFA Ethics
Committee -- in a public statement.
"It now appears that, at
least for the foreseeable future, the Eckert Decision will stand as the final
word on the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cup bidding process.
"No
independent governance committee, investigator, or arbitration panel can change
the culture of an organization."
FIFA
president Sepp Blatter said he was surprised by Garcia's resignation but that
the "work of the Ethics Committee will nonetheless continue."
"Pending
the election of a new chairman of the Ethics Committee by the FIFA Congress,
the FIFA Executive Committee will appoint an acting chairman to serve as a
replacement for Mr Garcia," added Blatter, who will be at FIFA ExCo's
meeting in Marrakech on Thursday and Friday.
However
Jerome Champagne, who is standing against Blatter in the 2015 FIFA presidential
election, said Garcia's decision was "a step backwards."
"We
need to know what happened before and after the 2 December 2010 vote,"
added Champagne, referring to the date Russia and Qatar won the right to stage
the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
"When
will the facts be known fully, transparently and above all without suspicion?
When will we be able to start rebuilding FIFA's image? And we need to protect
the World Cup."
Garcia
said his decision to resign had also been in influenced by FIFA's "lack of
leadership."
"Now
even FIFA's very own lead investigator has recognized what many of us have
warned for months: its self investigation process is neither valid nor
credible," said U.S. lawyer David Larkin, who has been a campaigner for
greater accountability from FIFA.
It has
been a difficult few months for Garcia.
In September the American said
for the first time that his report should be made public with redactions.
FIFA
rejected his request on the grounds that witness confidentiality for his work
could prove difficult to sustain if the report was published.
Then
Eckert published his summary, prompting Garcia to respond by saying the German
judge's 42-page report contained "numerous materially incomplete and
erroneous representations."
In his resignation statement
Garcia went even further.
"A
brief I filed with the FIFA Appeal Committee on November 24, 2014, outlined the
Eckert Decision's most serious failings," said the American lawyer.
"Among
other points, the brief explained why, when viewed in the context of the Report
it purported to summarize, no principled approach could justify the Eckert
Decision's edits, omissions, and additions."
After
Eckert's summary was published, Garcia also faced pressure from two
whistle-blowers.
Phaedra Al-Majid and Australian
Bonita Mersiades gave
evidence to Garcia and claim he broke his promise over an offer of anonymity if
they helped with his investigative report.
The two
women insist that assurances were given to them both in private and public that
they would not be compromised after agreeing to give evidence "through a
sense of natural justice and a desire to bring closure to a long running
chapter in our lives."
The women
were not identified by name, but they contend they were "clearly
identifiable" in the summary of Garcia's report.
However,
FIFA's disciplinary committee said Tuesday there "were no grounds to
justify the opening of disciplinary proceedings" given "the breach of
confidentiality claim had no substance."
Responding
to Garcia's resignation, Mersiades welcomed his decision, given he "agrees
with what many of us have long stated -- that FIFA is incapable of reform or
cultural change with its current leadership."
Al-Majid
described the American's departure from FIFA was "one more, emphatic
exposure of FIFA's self-protecting corruption."
She
added: "FIFA has no ethics. Its rules are a farce. Not even an extensive,
purportedly independent, two year investigation and report could affect its
culture.
"Why
would anyone believe or trust anything it says?"
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