FIFA’s report into the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups has been described as ‘a joke’, by English Football Association chairman Greg Dyke.
Dyke spoke after Michael Garcia, the man who investigated claims of wrongdoing and upon his findings the report is based, said the report was “erroneous”.
“It has undermined the whole process,” Dyke told BBC Sport, adding that it now looked “pretty ugly for FIFA”.
The 42-page document, compiled by German judge Hans-Joachim Eckert, was published this morning
American lawyer Michael Garcia, who spent two years investigating claims of corrupiton, was dismayed by the interim report and says he will appeal against its findings to FIFA’a appeals committee.
He said Eckert’s findings contained “numerous materially incomplete and erroneous representations”.
Dyke seized upon Garcia’s remarks, suggesting that they had fatally undermined the credibility of Eckert’s report.
“I think it’s now pretty ugly for FIFA if the person who did the inquiry says the judge hasn’t properly reflected his inquiry,” added Dyke.
“I think that’s pretty serious for FIFA. It now seems the interpretation of the Garcia report is not a fair one, according to Garcia himself.”
The FA was accused of trying to “curry favour” with former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner, the Trinidad and Tobago official who quit his role in 2011 amid bribery allegations.
The report accused England’s bid team of trying to win Warner’s backing by trying to help “a person of interest to him” find a part-time job in the United Kingdom; sponsoring a gala dinner for the Caribbean Football Union, at a cost of $55,000, around £35,000; letting the Trinidad and Tobago Under-20 squad hold a training camp in the UK in the summer of 2009
However, Dyke insisted the FA had “nothing to hide” and that their dealings with Warner were cleared in advance by Warner. .
“Within that report, most of the criticism is of people who cooperated the most fully,” he said.
“If you actually didn’t cooperate, you don’t get criticised, which seems very weird to me.
“The FA, I don’t think on this, has got anything to hide.
“Everything that was done was cleared with the FIFA executive beforehand and was told to the Garcia report by the English FA.”
