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World Cup 'corruption' report to stay secret

Sepp Blatter says Michael Garcia's report will remain secret © Getty Images

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A report into alleged World Cup voting corruption will not be made public by FIFA, despite several high-ranking figures urging the governing body to disclose the findings.

FIFA ethics investigator Michael Garcia and his team conducted more than 75 interviews over the past two years for the report on alleged corruption in the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding contests in 2010. Russia and Qatar were chosen to host the respective tournaments, but the voting process has since come under much scrutiny.

The report was handed over to FIFA ethics judge Joachim Eckert, who is due to examine the findings.

However, despite calls from the likes of UEFA president Michel Platini and FIFA presidential candidate Jerome Champagne to make the report public, world football's governing body and Eckert have so far refused to make the report, or at least its key findings, public.

Speaking at a news conference in Zurich on Friday, FIFA president Sepp Blatter said that the report will remain secret and that no member of FIFA's Executive Committee has asked for its disclosure.

Blatter added that the FIFA board members pushing for the report's release "were not there" in December 2010, when Russia and Qatar's World Cup bids proved to be successful.

"Today in the meeting there was not any request from any member to publish this report," he said. "I am not speaking on this matter because it is really a matter for the Ethics Committee.

"The only contact we have had with Michael Garcia was the press release we received. We have not received any requests to publish the report. We did not have any direct contact with Mr Garcia."

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