By RYAN TOLMICH
The saga surrounding FIFA’s private reports into the 2018/2022 World Cup bidding process took yet another turn Tuesday.
The FIFA Appeals Committee ruled Tuesday that the appeal from report assembler Michael Garcia was inadmissible, as it was ruled that the report was not legally binding nor appealable.
Garcia, the U.S.-based lawyer that was appointed by FIFA to assemble the report, had filed an appeal against the chairman of the adjudicatory chamber of the independent Ethics Committee, Hans-Joachim Eckert, after a summary of the report released to the public was deemed by Garcia to be incomplete.
However, the appeals committee ruled Monday that the report was not legally binding, as the committee does not view it as a “final” report, and thus is not required to release its details.
“According to the FIFA Code of Ethics,” FIFA said in a statement, “at the end of an investigation against a person bound by the FCE regarding breaches of provisions of the FCE, the chief of the investigation shall produce a final report containing, beside the facts and the gathered evidence, the possible rule violation and a recommendation to the adjudicatory chamber of the Ethics Committee for the appropriate sanctions to be taken.”
“As long as the adjudicatory chamber does not receive a final report from the investigatory chamber pursuant to art. 68 of the FCE (report directed against an accused person, mentioning the possible rule violation and containing a recommendation for taking appropriate sanctions), there is no room and competence for the adjudicatory chamber to exercise the adjudicatory powers that the FCE provides it with.”
In addition to the ruling on Garcia’s appeal, the FIFA Appeals Committee also dismissed complaints from the two whistleblowers referred to in Hans-Joachim Eckert’s summary of the ethics report. Disciplinary Committee chairman Claudio Sulser concluded that Phaedra Almajid and Bonita Mersiades had no grounds to complain about their outing in the report and that their complaints were “without merit.”
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What do you think of FIFA’s ruling? What do you see as the next turn in this saga?
Share your thoughts below
Someone needs to start a #FIFACodeOfEthics hashtag on Twitter. I’m thinking something like:
Walking into “meetings” with a canvas bag with the Euro sign on it lacks class. Here’s my go-to: http://bit.ly/1syJoLW #FIFACodeOfEthics
or
Big ceremonies where celebs draw balls from pots are fun but very hard to properly rig; play it safe and opt for anonymous closed-door voting #FIFACodeOfEthics
or
Don’t disregard out of hand officals from developing countries; you’d be surprised at the sums they’re capable of scrounging up! #SayNoToRacism #FIFACodeOfEthics
etc.
Paging Anonymous…
+100!
lol it’s almost comical at this point. the only thing left to do is to leave FIFA. FIFA cannot exist without the FAs. they do not hold the power. they clearly are not going to change, so everyone should leave, create a new governing body with rules that make sense, and go from there.
I absolutely love the “see no evil, hear no evil” photo at the top of the article.
Corrupt organization is corrupt.
just leak the report already! good grief
Ummm….errr…. Vote Quimby!
“Fifa code of ethics” is the greatest oxymoron I’ve ever heard. Better than jumbo shrimp or Dodge Ram.
This is a surprise… Said no one ever.
Actually it is not the end of the matter per se. There is still CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport) that could hear the matter. That of course would mean that Mr. Garcia would have to first exhaust all possible appeals at FIFA and then appeal to CAS which would make a binding decision on the matter.
Interesting thing is that CAS is also in Switzerland which makes one wonder about the transparency of it all.
Do you really think Garcia cares? Do you really think a guy of his intelligence was “ambushed” by any of this?
He’s done his dog-and-pony show bit. He’s gotten paid. He’s gotten plenty of (mostly good) PR for his private practice. He’s been allowed to shout his “outrage” down a bunch of channels that were obviously worthless.
And let’s face it… at the end of the day, he’s accomplished nothing meaningful whatsoever.
From what I can see, that’s pretty much “mission accomplished” for this whole charade.
This will be a great test of the ethics of member associations. Obviously the level of corruption in FIFA is so extraordinary that they act as if untouchable. If the member associations are complicit then there will be silence. If the member associations have any honor then there will be an outcry for real justice. Let’s see what US Soccer does and then hold them accountable.
“Obviously the level of corruption in FIFA is so extraordinary that they act as if untouchable.”
BellusLudas, FIFA is international sport’s version of the Catholic hierarchy. I say that as an ex-Catholic who worshipped in that church for more than half my life.
Of course, BellusLudas, U.S. Soccer could just hire the punks who trashed Ferguson and send them to Zurich. Just sayin’ … 😉
JDH, Thank you for explaining what needs no explaining. It seemed BellusLudus had a pretty good handle on it without the aid of an analogy.
Hope everything comes out OK for you.
Would be interesting if someone “hacked” into Mr Garcia’s email account, retrieved a copy of his report to FIFA and publish it for the world to see. NOT that I’m advocating anyone actually do this (that would be breaking the law), but if they did, it would make for very interesting reading material. I’m just sayin’….
I can’t believe it hasn’t already been leaked. Wikileaks ?
Wikileaks is only interested in trying to embarrass Western governments. Putting nations like Russia and Qatar is not their business model…
“Doing the same to nations like Russia and Qatar” that is.
How has this not leaked yet? And how/why is Fifa acting as if it never will?
It’s gotta get out somehow. I’d be surprised if it’s not leaked somehow in the next couple of months. The big question is, then what happens?
Garcia’s career as an attorney is over. Other than that?…. nothing.
Obviously, he would not be the one to leak it.
This is why I have never liked the glorification of Michael Garcia’s role here.
This is a smart guy– no question…. his resume tells us that.
Not that it matters…. even a reasonably decent attorney would understand based on FIFA’s history that there was NO WAY the original report was getting published if it implicated any of the FIFA senior heirarchy in significant wrongdoing. That is borderline common sense for anybody with even a basic knowledge of FIFA’s track record.
So why did Garcia accept the gig? Probably the answer is: a nice paycheck and some big-time PR. He knew full-well the report would be redacted, but all he has to do is express his “outrage”, and he comes out fine.
Do we really think he was “shocked” by any of this? I look at his CV and find it impossible to believe.
It’s disappointing that the FIFA movie did not include some parody involving the North Korean president.
So let me get this straight. FIFA said the report was not a “final” report. So what is the final report? FIFA’s verson? Funny how it is so obvious of the corruption of FIFA and nothing can be done about it as they police themselves.
“… the chief of the investigation shall produce a final report containing, beside the facts and the gathered evidence, all means of fabrications ensuring that peoples in power aligned with the heads of the committees – excluding those that may have voted against said heads – shall remain in power.”
Shocking.
Well, that tears it. The FIFA World Cup 2022 will be in Qatar in January.
The more interesting question is, who’s actually going to BE there?
This will not end well.
Qatar will probably just ‘pay’ people to sit in the stands during games to make them appear full.
I wish FIFA would get their heads out of their ___es and realize they are killing their own product.
FIFA was in effect on trial but they served as their own jurors.
It is not about people in the stands, but will the teams go? I hope the investigation that is continuing here in the U.S will finally force these corrupt individuals and organization to have to take action, stop Qatar 2022 and force Blatter to resign as well as several others.