Ethics Committee investigation into 2018 and 2022 World Cups will not be made public

By Nick Butler

An Ethics Committee investigation into the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 editions of the FIFA World Cup to Russia and Qatar respectively will not be completed for another six weeks, and when it is finished, it will not be made public.

The report, undertaken through an extensive study by former United States attorney Michael Garcia over the last 18 months, has looked into allegations of ethics breaches and vote trading in the bid process for both tournaments.

He began compiling his report in the second week of June, and it was due to be submitted to the adjudicatory chamber of FIFA's ethics committee by the end of this month, but FIFA has now confirmed that it has been delayed by several weeks.

It is now expected that it will be delivered by the first week of September.

Meanwhile a FIFA spokesman also confirmed that the findings of the report would not be made public, only the decision of the adjudicatory chamber will be.

Qatar 2022 has been a major challenge for FIFA President Sepp Blatter and the rest of the governing body ©AFP/Getty Images

This all comes as the furore into the decision to award Qatar the tournament in 2022 has been strongly criticised following The Sunday Times in London revealing it had seen millions of secret documents which allegedly prove football officials were paid a total of $5 million (£3 million/€3.6 million) to back the Gulf nation's bid.

Garcia has already revealed that he has interviewed every bid team and all the FIFA members who cast votes in the secret ballot, and that "no one should assume the information we have or do not have".

His report will be delivered to FIFA's ethics judge Hans-Joachim Eckhart, who will review the recommendations before handing down any sanctions for individuals or bidding nations.

But because only Eckhart's verdicts will become public, it will be impossible to know precisely what Garcia found, and what his recommendations were, with some believing that he will recommend that Qatar be stripped of the tournament.

This secrecy hardly helps FIFA's already beleaguered public reputation, with President Sepp Blatter facing many claims about the lack of transparency within the governing body.