ZURICH — Under pressure from FIFA’s independent prosecutor to unlock the secrecy that surrounds a FIFA World Cup bidding corruption probe, Sepp Blatter shut down that populist move Friday.
Blatter was in combative form at a news conference after a two-day executive committee meeting, and used his chance to seize back control of an agenda dominated for a week by ethics prosecutor Michael Garcia.
Still, even on a day when Blatter told his executive committee he intends to run for re-election next year, he had to spend more time talking about a corruption investigation when addressing the media.
Responding to public pressure on FIFA to publish a report into alleged corruption surrounding the bids for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, Blatter said his body is bound by its ethics code to keep it secret. He also chided the chief investigator, former U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia, for issuing a press release Wednesday calling for FIFA’s executive committee to publish his report, rather than contacting Blatter personally.
“The FIFA president or secretary general have not had any demands or requests from Mr. Garcia to speak with us,” Blatter said Friday. “The only contact that we have had … was his press releases.”
The probe centers on alleged corruption in the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding contests won by Russia and Qatar, and several executive committee members who joined since the December 2010 votes had backed Garcia’s views this week. However, those voices apparently fell silent during Friday’s meeting.
“Most of the requests coming for the publication of this report were from people (that) were not there on the second of December (2010) when the decision was taken,” Blatter said. “Today there was not any longer any requests from any of these members in the FIFA to publish this report.”
The issue will now likely quiet down until November. Then, FIFA ethics judge Joachim Eckert should be done reading the first-draft reports from Garcia’s team.
Garcia can request opening formal cases against FIFA board members and final verdicts are expected around April. Eckert has suggested he will limit sanctions to individuals, and leave Blatter’s board to decide on possible action against Russia or Qatar.
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