By RYAN TOLMICH
The saga surrounding the bidding process of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups is far from over.
FIFA announced on Monday that the organization is set to file a criminal complaint to the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland with regard to the bidding process surrounding the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
“The subject of the criminal complaint is the possible misconduct of individual persons in connection with the awarding of the hosting rights of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups investigated by Michael Garcia, chairman of the investigatory chamber of the FIFA Ethics Committee,” FIFA said in a statement Tuesday. “In particular there seem to be grounds for suspicion that, in isolated cases, international transfers of assets with connections to Switzerland took place, which merit examination by the criminal prosecution authorities.
“The reports compiled by Michael Garcia and Cornel Borbély will be made available to the Office of the Attorney General via Hans-Joachim Eckert. Unlike FIFA’s bodies, the Swiss criminal prosecution authorities have the ability to conduct investigations under application of criminal procedural coercive measures.”
The complaint comes in the aftermath of a meeting between FIFA’s ethics judge Hans-Joachim Eckert and Garcia, who has spoken out against FIFA’s handling of his report. President Sepp Blatter had a part in submitting the complaint,although names have yet to be released.
“I lodged the criminal complaint upon the recommendation of Judge Eckert,” Blatter said. “I cannot, however, comment on any possible criminal offences. I am not a lawyer. I also was not the addressee of the investigatory report, which I have never seen. However, given Judge Eckert’s recommendation, it was my duty — as the president of FIFA — to lodge the complaint.”
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