American lawyer Michael Garcia is looking to appeal against Fifa to fully publish findings from his investigation and the governing bodies’ ‘revised’ 431 paged summary looking into the allegations of criminal corruption, which the fbi have been investigating. Seb Blatter and co would not entertain Garcia and his own work on the matter by blatantly dismissing him by keeping his findings strictly confidential.
Russia have joined Qatar in making fools of themselves stating they have ‘no records’ of their bidding process, as though the dog ate their homework, their computers have been destroyed or passed down to schools or from wherever they were rented, therefore minimising any apparent evidence of their voting procedures. Any well established company, in any industry that uses computers will have the capacity to track back on their systems to find out the nitty gritty details of important business decisions, so why can this not be looked into further before clearing an organisation? To add comment, Alexey Sorokin, the chief of Russia’s 2018 World Cup organising committee, in defence advised his country had nothing to hide. Both Qatar and Russia have been cleared to host the 2018 and 2022 whilst the FA have been accused of trying to twist the food of thought and questioned about their own bid. Should the FA seperate themselves from Fifa? They will not have the backing of UEFA and platini, who isn’t strong enough in my opinion and backs the Qatar tournament strongly for variety. He has however asked for Garcia’s findings to be published to reflect a fair outcome which I cannot criticise him for. The FA complied with the bidding rules and others didn’t, it has been spoken about worldwide, which Fifa surely have to take into consideration. If the FA walked away they would be accused of further negligence and percieved even further that they are the ones playing games and trying to cause disruption. The FA would need to convince other governing bodies around the world to join them to boycott which would take plenty of heavy persuasion and it would take a long, long time. From a financial point of view the FS cannot afford for England to miss out on a World Cup. It is frustrating because we have the right ethics in place and Fifa is a laughing stock. Even Sepp Blatter’s challenger next year, Jerome Champagne supports this.
Criticising the FA does come as a surprise, especially after it is an organisation that has called for the upmost transparency throughout the voting process. Apparently, accusing Fifa of not conforming to the rules and seriousness of corruption warrants criticism, which for the most part is embarrassing for the FA. Fifa have accused the FA of trying to gain favourable votes by networking and trying to tap up the likes of former Fifa-vice president Jack Warner, who subsequently quit his role in 2011 amid bribary allegations. Simon Johnson, the chief operating officer at the FA has strongly denied these allegations of ‘currying favour’ or in any instance trying to ‘damage the integrity of the bidding process or Fifa’s image’ by that note as quoted in Fifa’s report. Do members of the FA deserve disciplinary action for trying to be transparent to the rules? Wasn’t it Qatar who was subsequently accused of paying Fifa officials £3m to secure votes? Although all accusations have to be considered how can anything else be perceived more serious than this? It had been adjudged that former Fifa vice-president Mohamed bin Hammam made payments to support his own political interests and not the bid itself. How does this acknowlege any sense, especially as bin Hamman was once vying for Blatter’s position at the helm. For me, Fifa’s report quite clearly indicates a dislike for England and its policies.
It is clear no re-vote will take place, both Russia and Qatar have been cleared of any wrongdoing due to an apparent ‘underwhelming direct evidence or sheer lack of’. It now seems, without the nature of Michael Garcia’s findings, there is not going to be any further query into whether the two successful bids were compromised which seems a little unconvincing to say the least. What is worrying is the result of the allegations which remain unanswered which is why there have been calls by the likes of Grey Dyke to have the Garcia report fully published for fair criticism. Why would a man of the highest integrity and professional accord be asked to conduct an 18-month investigation for it not to be fully accessible to everyone involved? Ask Mr Hans-Joachim Eckert, the man who reviewed and selected the areas that Sepp Blatter would want to hear. How can anyone enjoy a World Cup that has been elected without any rich evidence being properly documented? Four years of controversy and still not everyone will be satisfied by the election process, especially the Qatari World Cup which will disrupt a number of fooball clubs and organisations globally for simply looking into alternative dates due to unbearable weather conditions in the summer months.
British MP Clive Efford made a fantastic point which backs the publishing of Garcia’s hard research, “Fifa has no choice but to publish Michael Garcia’s report in full if it expects anyone to believe their claims that there has been no cover-up over allegations of corruption in the World Cup bidding process.” Why does it seem that everytime Fifa is involved there is something to cover up or make an excuse of?
Fifa needs to improve the bidding process for future World Cups as the current system is not transparent enough. It needs to refrain from being unseen and open up as an event like it use to be. There needs to be heavy viewing of any relationships between competing bidding nations. Personally I back Michael Garcia’s analogy by calling for a “change of culture” at Fifa “greater transparency” so everyone can abide by the same, fair rules under a leadership that everyone involved in the game can have confidence in. A game that serves the public should not be in the middle of a debate of public scrutiny and corruption. How can the public have any confidence in a committee that isn’t fully open to an investigation that aims to prove the facts? I am all for a change of leadership. I do not feel any connection as a fan to the way Fifa represents and conducts itself and hope that if Champagne gets the seal of approval that he represents the words he has spoken of with true integrity, which sees him wanting to bring the world and football back together as a respectable committee. Blatter has lost all credibility and has served far beyond his tenure. His representation of the game is a joke and his opinion on the bidding process for 2018 and 2022 doesn’t bare any validity. He has pushed his boat out too far any made a fool of himself. I hereby join the ‘Blatter out’ campaign along with the large group of numbers who back his resignation.
The fact that Michael Garcia is ready to appeal suggests he feels hard done by, meaning this is certainly not the end of the matter, especially under the Qatar regime. Qatar was the highest risk and still is. Hopefully one day the truth will come out about who did what wrong and who mistreated the policies put in place. It would be a grave shame if it was never made truly clear who the real wrongdoers are in what has been a farce from the beginning.
Football: Our Controversial Passion 