Skip to content

Garcia Report into 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding process leaked by Bild

Image: Michael Garcia's report was published in 2014 but never in full

Michael Garcia's entire report into alleged bribery and corruption in the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups has been leaked in Germany.

Daily newspaper Bild claims to have obtained a 430-plus page report written by American lawyer Garcia back in 2014, a report that was never published in full.

Garcia resigned as head of FIFA's investigatory body in December 2014 in protest at what he described as FIFA's "incomplete and erroneous" 42-page summary of his report.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Bryan Swanson reports on claims of alleged corruption over the awarding of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar, published by the German newspaper Bild

According to Bild, in the report Garcia reveals that "a former executive committee member congratulated members of the Qatari federation and thanked them by mail for a transfer of several hundred thousand euros" just after Qatar was awarded the 2022 tournament.

"Two million dollars from an unknown source arrived in the savings account of the 10-year-old daughter of a FIFA member," add Bild.

The newspaper adds that "three executive members of FIFA with the right to vote went to a party in Rio de Janeiro in a private jet belonging to the Qatari federation before the vote to decide who would host the competition."

The Aspire Academy in Qatar, one of the biggest sports academies in the world, was also "implicated in a decisive manner in the manipulation of FIFA members who had the right to vote," the paper adds.

Also See:

Live UEFA European Under-21s Championship Football

Qatar won the right to host the 2022 World Cup in late 2010 and the result of the vote has been the source of enormous controversy ever since.

Following Garcia's investigation, the adjudicatory chamber of FIFA's ethics committee noted that there had been suspicious behaviour during the bidding process but not enough to call into question the decision to give Qatar the 2022 finals or Russia the 2018 tournament.

Around Sky