Russia and Qatar Bids cleared of misconduct
When FIFA’s chairman of the Ethics Committee Hans-Joachim Eckert released the 42 page summary of Michael Garcia’s investigation into the bidding of the 2018 & 2022 World Cups it was no shock to anyone that Russia and Qatar hosts of the 2018 and 2022 editions of the World Cup were cleared of any wrongdoing. Eckert’s summary stated that Russia “made only a limited amount of documents available for review” as the computers which had been leased to the Russia Bid Committee had been returned to their original owner and subsequently destroyed in the meantime. The report cleared Russia of any wrongdoing stating “the evidence available is not sufficient to support any findings of misconduct by the Russia 2018 bid team”. However, the summary report attributed blame to the English and Australian bids stating both had “potentially problematic facts and circumstances" in their bids and stating that they had undermined the integrity of the bidding. Australia was heavily crit...