A FIFA Ethics Committee member tasked with investigating the bidding processes of the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups awarded to Russia and Qatar respectively has delivered a 430-page report to FIFA and called for greater transparency in the leadership of world football’s governing body.
Michael Garcia, who was the Chief Investigator of an independent ethics group which spent the past 18 months looking into the World Cup bids, made the call during a keynote address of an American Bar Association event held in London.
Garcia stated that ”What is required is leadership that sends a message that the rules apply to everyone. Leadership that wants to understand and learn from any mistakes or mis-steps the ethics committee may have identified.”
Formerly an Attorney in the New York southern district, he added ”It’s that kind of leadership that breathes the life into a code of ethics. Because true reform doesn’t come from rules or creating new committee structures. It comes from changing the culture of the organisation.”
He also reiterated his stance for the findings of the report to be made public when he said ”FIFA built the system that should inspire confidence that things have changed for the better. Showing that to the public serves FIFA’s best interest.”
”We have seen that recently with the NFL where a lack of transparency in its initial investigation concerning Ray Rice fostered scepticism and questions about the integrity of its leadership,” Garcia stressed, adding ”Notably, the NFL has made clear the results of the new investigation will indeed be made public. That in turn would help foster a culture of compliance internally and would promote more confidence in the system”
Instead of the report being made public however, FIFA President Sepp Blatter had stated only a summary of it by head of FIFA’s Adjudicatory Arm of the Ethics Committee Hans Joachim Eckert – to whom the 430-page report was submitted to – would be made public.