FIFA confirms Russia, Qatar

A report by the ethics committee of world governing body FIFA has confirmed that both the 2018 and 2022 World Cups will take place in Russia and Qatar respectively.

The report identified certain occurrences that "impaired the integrity" of the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bids according to Hans Joachim Eckert, the chairman of the ethic committee's adjudicatory chamber. Still, Eckert said that these occurrences were not sufficient for the bidding process to be re-opened.

"The assessment of the 2018/2022 FIFA World Cups bidding process is therefore closed for the FIFA ethics committee," he said.

German football association (DFB) president Wolfgang Niersbach said Thursday that, even after the confirmation from FIFA, there are "many unanswered questions on weather conditions, tournament timing and working conditions in Qatar."

Garcia opposed

Later on Thursday, prosecutor Michael Garcia criticized Eckert's 42-page report clearing the 2018 and 2022 hosts. Eckert's document was based on Garcia's initial investigation of corruption within FIFA.

"Today's decision by [Eckert] contains numerous materially incomplete and erroneous representations of the facts and conclusions detailed in the Investigatory Chamber's report," Garcia said in a statement released by his law firm.

"I intend to appeal this decision to the FIFA Appeal Committee," the statement said.

Eckert confirmed back in October that the full investigative report by Garcia would not be released to the public, a fact which has been regularly criticized by various football federations and media since.

England and Australia criticized

In Thursday's report, Eckert named "potentially problematic facts and circumstances" around the English World Cup bid, most notably efforts to win the vote of former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner in the 2010 vote.

The English FA responded to the accusations on Thursday via their website, where the organization said: "We do not accept any criticism regarding the integrity of England's bid or any of the individuals involved."

Eckert's report also claimed that Australia's bid for the 2022 tournament contained indications of potentially "problematic conduct" of specific individuals in light of the relevant FIFA ethics rules. The occurrences were only of "very limited scope" though, the report said.

al/ sm (AFP, AP, Reuters, SID)