World Cup 2022: Claims of corruption in Qatar bid published in Germany

BBC sports editor Dan Roan

Ever since ex-Fifa ethics chief Michael Garcia dramatically resigned in protest at the way his landmark investigation was handled two years ago, the contents of his secret report have been one of sport’s great mysteries.

And while the leaked document may not represent a ‘smoking gun’, there are early signs it will raise further awkward questions, especially over Fifa’s decision in 2014 to clear Qatar’s bid to host the event.

For example, we now know that Garcia wrote that the Qatari bid used the country’s sport’s development academy ‘Aspire’, to “curry favour with executive committee members”, and that this “served to undermine the integrity of the bidding process”.

So why then did his Fifa ethics colleague German judge Hans-Joachim Eckert then say in his summary of the report, that his findings “were, all in all, not suited to compromise the integrity of the bidding process as a whole”? No wonder Garcia quit in protest.

Qatar’s hugely contentious staging of the tournament is already under renewed scrutiny amid a diplomatic crisis with its neighbours over its alleged support of extremism. Meanwhile, as it prepares to stage the final of the Confederations Cup, 2018 host Russia has been forced to fend off new doping allegations, and concerns over the treatment of workers. These latest revelations are the last thing Fifa needs, especially with those remarkable 2010 votes still the subject of criminal investigations in Switzerland and France.