FIFA To Release Garcia Corruption Report

FIFA is reported to have decided to release a report into alleged corruption at soccer's world governing body. This comes two days after the leading investigator resigned.



FIFA Vice President Jim Boyce told the Associated Press on Friday that FIFA's executive committee, which is meeting in Marrakech, Morocco, had decided to release the report compiled by top US lawyer Michael Garcia into alleged corruption surround the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. Boyce did not immediately provide any further details, except to say that no date had been set for the report's release.



A statement released later by FIFA President Sepp Blatter said the report would be released in "an appropriate form," which could mean much of it would first be redacted out.



Garcia, the lead investigator looking into the allegations resigned from the post on Wednesday citing a "lack of leadership " by FIFA over his inquiry, which he said had revealed "serious and wide-ranging issues" in the bidding process, which saw the 2018 World Cup awarded to Russia and the 2022 event handed to Qatar.



His resignation came in protest against a summary of his report released by FIFA judge Hans-Joachim Eckert, which stated that no serious corruption had been found and that the processes of bidding for neither of the events needed to be repeated.



Garcia resigned a day after FIFA rejected his appeal# to get his full report released.



pfd/rc (Reuters, AP, dpa)