The New York Times does not appear to be a FIFA fan anymore than I am... Below follows the news that the Independent Ethics Review is now being mis-cast from what Michael Garia, the Chairman of the investigative committee delivered in his 500+ page report!  It makes my blood boil to see how scandalous Blatter and his fellow Executive Members can be...  Maybe this time... just this one time, these criminals might be exposed for who and what they are...

FIFA Inquiry Clears Qatar and Russia in World Cup Bids

By SAM BORDEN NOV. 13, 2014

One soccer official asked a potential World Cup host for personal favors, such as a job for a relative, and found them readily granted. Other executives were more circumspect, requesting million-dollar investments in their home countries rather than direct payments. Still others simply traded in cold cash.

None, however, were deemed to have affected the integrity of the voting for the 2018 World Cup, which was awarded to Russia, or the 2022 tournament, which will be held in Qatar. In fact, according to a statement from the head ethics judge of FIFA’s independent ethics committee released on Thursday, the investigation into what, exactly, happened at the 2010 vote where FIFA’s executive committee awarded the next two World Cups is now closed.

In reality, the controversy over the now-infamous vote appears to only be simmering. Hours after the German judge, Hans-Joachim Eckert, released his statement — which was, essentially, a summary and interpretation of the year-long investigation conducted by Michael J. Garcia, a former United States attorney and the head of the investigatory arm of the ethics committee — Garcia lashed out at his counterpart, criticizing Eckert’s characterizations of his findings as incorrect and incomplete, and vowing to appeal Eckert’s decision to close the case to FIFA’s appeals panel.

Hans-Joachim Eckert, right, who heads the adjudicatory arm of FIFA’s ethics committee, released his 42-page summary after reviewing the work of Michael J. Garcia, left, the head of the investigatory chamber of the committee.

If that sounds bizarre — one FIFA ethics committee chairman appealing another FIFA ethics committee chairman’s statement on a FIFA investigation to FIFA’s appeals board — it is only the latest twist in a saga that has lingered over the soccer world for nearly four years.

Eckert’s statement, according to Garcia, contained “numerous materially incomplete and erroneous representations of the facts and conclusions detailed in the investigatory chamber’s report.” It also omitted details regarding some of Garcia’s most pointed criticisms, according to a person briefed on the contents of Garcia’s report, specifically a rebuke of FIFA’s powerful executive committee, whose members cast the votes awarding the 2018 and 2022 tournaments.

Garcia’s investigations uncovered ethics violations by a number of executive committee members, the person said, noting that many would likely face charges brought by the ethics committee. “It is not just the usual suspects” who will be charged, the person added.

Critics might point out that the easiest way to determine the truth about the investigation would be to simply make Garcia’s report public, which is something that several of the newer executive committee members, including Sunil Gulati, the president of U.S. Soccer, have publicly lobbied to make happen. Garcia, too, has made no secret of his desire for the report to be made public — with limited redactions — and he even sent suggested redactions to Eckert before Eckert released his statement Thursday morning.

Eckert, however, dismissed Garcia’s suggestions and reiterated on Thursday that he believes privacy concerns make the public release of Garcia’s report “impossible.”

Late Thursday, Gulati and his fellow executive committee member Jeffrey Webb, the president of the regional federation that includes the United States, released a joint statement pressing FIFA anew to release the report.

“Given the disagreement between the two Chairmen of the Investigatory and Adjudicatory Chambers of the Ethics Committee and to ensure complete transparency we believe the full report conducted by the FIFA Ethics Committee into the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups should be made public as soon as possible,” Gulati and Webb said. “This can be done with appropriate redaction to protect any confidentiality required by the FIFA Code of Ethics. Providing the entire independent report for inspection is in the best interest of the game and FIFA.”

That means that, for the moment, the only clarity on the matter has come in the form of Eckert’s 42-page summary of Garcia’s roughly 500-page investigation. In Eckert’s statement, the judge focused primarily on the actions of the 11 nations which bid for the two World Cups. While Garcia found violations of varying degrees among the bidding countries including Qatar and Russia, Eckert wrote, the discoveries were “far from reaching any threshold that would require returning to the bidding process, let alone reopening it.” According to Eckert, the investigation also did not find any evidence of wrongdoing by Sepp Blatter, the longtime president of FIFA, whom Eckert singled out for credit at one point “for the cooperation FIFA demonstrated throughout this investigation.”

Oddly, the heaviest criticism from Eckert with regard to ethical violations during the bidding process was directed at a losing bid: in its attempt to stage the 2018 tournament, England engaged in actions that were “damaging” to FIFA’s image and the bidding process, Eckert wrote. In particular, Eckert highlighted Garcia’s discovery that officials handling England’s bid had numerous interactions with Jack Warner, a member of FIFA’s executive committee at the time who made several unethical requests of England’s bid committee (including asking for a relative to be given a job). England’s “bid team often accommodated Mr. Warner’s wishes, in apparent violation of bidding rules and the FIFA code of ethics,” Eckert wrote.

Eckert also cited England’s involvement with Reynald Temarii, a former executive committee member from the Oceania confederation, who appeared to connect a potential vote for England to the English federation’s willingness to allocate football development funds to his region.

The English Football Association rejected both the suggestion that its officials had acted improperly and Eckert’s conclusions, saying, “We do not accept any criticism regarding the integrity of England’s bid or any of the individuals involved.”

Qatar, which has been at the center of much speculation about misconduct, was found to have committed some violations — particularly with regard to its use of consultants — but Eckert wrote that the country’s actions “were, all in all, not suited to compromise the integrity” of the bid process as a whole.

Eckert made a similar statement about Russia’s bid for the 2018 World Cup, despite noting that Russia made only a limited number of documents available to the investigators because the computers used by Russian officials who handled the bid had been destroyed. He did not elaborate on what, exactly, led to the computers being destroyed or why emails and other documents were lost as well.

FIFA moved quickly to embrace Eckert’s findings, releasing a statement that said it “welcomes the fact that a degree of closure has been reached” in the affair.

Qatar’s Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, the body responsible for the 2022 World Cup, said in a statement  that it continued “to believe that a fair and appropriate review will demonstrate the integrity and quality of our bid.” And Russia’s sports minister, Vitaly Mutko, told Reuters, “It’s good to put a line under this, and I hope we will not have talk about this again.”

That seems unlikely. In total, Eckert commented on eight of the nine groups that submitted bids (one of two joint proposals, from Spain and Portugal, was omitted and the countries appeared to be particularly uncooperative). The United States, which applied to host the 2022 tournament, was not found to have committed any significant wrongdoing.

Eckert did indicate in his report that Garcia should bring charges against individuals who violated FIFA’s ethics code but did not name them, despite Garcia’s identifying some individuals who committed violations in his report. Eckert did name a few familiar figures who had been previously linked to corrupt activities, including Mohammad bin Hammam, a Qatari official who was banned for life by FIFA in 2012 because of various violations, including the brazen attempted bribery of officials from the Caribbean and Africa. Eckert concluded that although Bin Hammam clearly supported the Qatar bid, his actions were designed to advance a personal agenda — Bin Hammam hoped to run for president of FIFA — and did not impact the bid voting.

FIFA’s statement, like those of Russian and Qatari officials, said it welcomed the opportunity to continue planning for the two tournaments even as it remained unclear when the Qatar tournament will be played. Holding the tournament in the summer, when the event normally takes place, is now seen as unfeasible in Qatar, meaning that a winter tournament — perhaps as late as November and December 2022 — is a possibility.

That question will surely continue to be debated — a decision is not expected until next year, at the earliest — but so will the fairness of the process that led to these tournaments being awarded. In all, at least 6 of the 22 people who voted on the 2018 and 2022 host countries have been connected to serious allegations of impropriety. And, despite Eckert’s statement that the bidding was conducted without serious flaw, even the executive committee has seemed to realize a change was needed in the process: after a recent rule change, future votes will involve all 209 member nations, as opposed to only the members of the executive committee. 

Sports of The Times: In Conclusion, FIFA Says, FIFA Has Again Done Nothing Wrong NOV. 13, 2014