Ending speculation: FIFA rules out 2018, 2022 World Cup revote
Report claims not enough evidence to warrant reopening of process
PARIS:
Football's governing body Fifa has cleared 2022 World Cup hosts Qatar of corruption and ruled out a revote to decide the host of the competition despite widespread allegations of wrongdoing.
An exhaustive report by the ethics committee of world governing body Fifa admitted that even though there had been a series of worrying episodes in the bidding for the tournament, as well as the 2018 World Cup in Russia, there was not enough evidence to justify reopening the process.
"The report identified certain occurrences that were suited to impair the integrity of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups bidding process," said the 42-page report released by Hans Joachim Eckert, the chairman of the committee's adjudicatory chamber.
However, the report went to add that the evidence is not sufficient to warrant a return to the bidding process. “While the chairman of the adjudicatory chamber fully concurs with the relevant findings, the occurrences at issue were, in the chairman's assessment, only of very limited scope,” he said. “In particular, the effects of these occurrences on the bidding process as a whole were far from reaching any threshold that would require returning to the bidding process, let alone reopening it.”
However, the committee did recommend a series of reforms to future bidding processes in an effort to protect the integrity of the sport's most lucrative event.
These include four-year limits on Fifa executive committee posts; the Fifa Congress, rather than the executive committee, to decide on future venues; a more transparent rotation system; and a ban on committee members visiting bidding nations.
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Football's governing body Fifa has cleared 2022 World Cup hosts Qatar of corruption and ruled out a revote to decide the host of the competition despite widespread allegations of wrongdoing.
An exhaustive report by the ethics committee of world governing body Fifa admitted that even though there had been a series of worrying episodes in the bidding for the tournament, as well as the 2018 World Cup in Russia, there was not enough evidence to justify reopening the process.
"The report identified certain occurrences that were suited to impair the integrity of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups bidding process," said the 42-page report released by Hans Joachim Eckert, the chairman of the committee's adjudicatory chamber.
However, the report went to add that the evidence is not sufficient to warrant a return to the bidding process. “While the chairman of the adjudicatory chamber fully concurs with the relevant findings, the occurrences at issue were, in the chairman's assessment, only of very limited scope,” he said. “In particular, the effects of these occurrences on the bidding process as a whole were far from reaching any threshold that would require returning to the bidding process, let alone reopening it.”
However, the committee did recommend a series of reforms to future bidding processes in an effort to protect the integrity of the sport's most lucrative event.
These include four-year limits on Fifa executive committee posts; the Fifa Congress, rather than the executive committee, to decide on future venues; a more transparent rotation system; and a ban on committee members visiting bidding nations.
Like Sports on Facebook, follow @ETribuneSports on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.