FIFA ethics judge Hans-Joachim Eckert says he is surprised at public criticism from his investigative counterpart Michael Garcia over the report which concluded that the bidding process for the 2018-2022 World Cups did not have to be re-run.
Eckert issued a 42-page statement on Thursday on the controversial process which ended with the tournaments being awarded to Russia and Qatar respectively, based on findings from report compiled by Garcia following an 18-month investigation.
Three hours later Garcia issued his own statement saying the FIFA report contained “numerous materially incomplete and erroneous representations of the facts”, adding that he was going to appeal against its verdicts.
“Usually you would first speak to each other internally if you don’t like something,” Eckert told Reuters on Friday, adding that he had not been able to get in touch with Garcia. “I have been trying to contact him,” he said.
Eckert confirmed that Garcia had not received a copy of the statement before it was made public.
“It could be a misunderstanding after all,” he said.
Who is Michael Garcia? And why he is so brave to bring out what is being dunged beneath. I mean Fifa is a respected organization that is governed by high profile, good people .though we have seen some cases of irregularity in past in this very organization but of course, they were washed out on a clean note mere to some people disappointment. Then why once again the clouds of suspicion have come on floating on this well run football body. We will look a bit deeper in Garcia s case and will raise the curtains of his so valor nature.
Garcia made his name in his native New York, serving as a federal prosecutor with the Southern District of New York from 1992 to 2001 and working on a series of high-profile cases.
These included the prosecution of four defendants for the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993, and the investigation into the 1998 bombings of the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. He once told his daughter that his goal was “to punish people who do bad things and break the law”.
In March 2003 President George W Bush appointed Mr. Garcia, a Republican, as assistant secretary for immigration and customs enforcement. The post that put him in charge of more than 20,000 staff and a budget of more than $4bn.
Later he moved back to New York’s Southern District, serving as US attorney from 2005-2008. There he supervised investigations into securities fraud, bringing a series of insider trading prosecutions. An investigation he led ultimately forced the resignation of Democratic governor Eliot Spitzer over a prostitution scandal. Well that is a promo of MR. Garcia’s enormous high profile work but of course we won’t talk and tell much about him to our readers. LORD knows how creepy I am feeling sitting so far from his grip, an unknown stranger but still remembering anything I have said about football and football governing body that may not be liked by The Garcia. He was a surprise choice to lead the Fifa investigation, and ruffled feathers at football’s governing body. On one occasion, he turned up unannounced to interview members of the senior executive committee who had cast votes in the World Cup bids.
Even before he dismissed Fifa’s report as “erroneous”, there were signs that he was not afraid to pick a fight with his employers.
In an interview last year he said his authority was to investigate “any official, top down, for misconduct… no-one is above the ethics code”.
He acknowledged that he took on the investigation as an outsider. “I come into this case with no history or experience of what might have happened,” he said. “I will look at the facts and my jurisdiction and make decisions on whether the ethics code was violated.”
In a recent talk to lawyers in London about ethics in sport, Mr. Garcia said Fifa’s ethic’s code needed transparency and leadership – a comment seen as a thinly veiled critique of Fifa boss Sepp Blatter.
And giving you guys some last blows; I would like to tell a little tiny thing about Garcia that he is married to an FBI agent. Making him more of a good nature man.
