Dyke Fifa report publication plea
FOOTBALL Association chairman Greg Dyke has urged world governing body Fifa’s most influential figures to demand full publication of an investigation into alleged World Cup bid corruption.
Dyke has written to all 25 members of Fifa’s executive committee following outcry at last week’s summary report – which cleared Qatar and Russia – saying: “We cannot go on like this.”
His intervention came on the day that two whistleblowers accused Fifa’s chief ethics adjudicator, German judge Hans-Joachim Eckert, of reneging on a pledge to protect their identities.
Eckert’s 42-page verdict was based on a 430-page report by Fifa’s ethics investigator Michael Garcia, who called Eckert’s findings “materially incomplete and erroneous”.
“Urgent action is needed if confidence in Fifa is to be rebuilt in England,” Dyke writes. “The FA is of the view that this action should start with the full publication of Mr Garcia’s report.”
Eckert has resisted calls from Garcia to publish his report in its entirety because those who provided evidence were promised anonymity.
But Phaedra Almajid, who worked for Qatar’s 2022 World Cup bid team before being dismissed, and former Australia bid team official Bonita Mersiades yesterday accused Eckert and Fifa of failing to do that.
Almajid and Mersiades, who both worked in their teams’ communications departments until 2010, said Eckert’s summary revealed enough details about them to make them identifiable, despite not naming them.