{"id":50137,"date":"2014-09-22T15:56:26","date_gmt":"2014-09-22T15:56:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=50137"},"modified":"2014-09-22T15:56:26","modified_gmt":"2014-09-22T15:56:26","slug":"world-cup-2018-2022-report-could-prompt-charges-mp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=50137","title":{"rendered":"World Cup 2018 & 2022 report could prompt charges – MP"},"content":{"rendered":"

A report into alleged corruption at Fifa, football’s world governing body, could lead to criminal charges, a Conservative MP believes.<\/p>\n

Damian Collins has asked the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) to request a copy of the report into the bidding processes for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.<\/p>\n

American lawyer Michael Garcia\u00a0filed his report this month,<\/a>\u00a0but Fifa says its contents will not be made public.<\/p>\n

Collins believes it may provide evidence of criminal activity.<\/p>\n

“Fifa seems to believe it is a self-governing body that operates outside the jurisdiction of international and national law-enforcement agencies,” writes Collins, MP for Folkestone and Hythe.<\/p>\n

“I do not believe this is the case and that if it holds information that indicates that offences may have been committed, this must be shared with the relevant law-enforcement agencies.”<\/p>\n

\"DamianDamian Collins has previously requested that the Serious Fraud Office investigate the claims<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Collins copied his letter, addressed to SFO director David Green, to the Attorney General and Solicitor General.<\/p>\n

The\u00a02018 World Cup was awarded by Fifa to Russia in 2010,<\/a>\u00a0with the 2022 event handed to Qatar at the same time.<\/p>\n

The Qatar 2022 bid committee is facing claims of corruption after theSunday Times alleged\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0in June that former Fifa vice-president Mohamed bin Hammam paid \u00a33m to football officials around the world in return for support for the bid.<\/p>\n

The Qatari bid committee\u00a0denied all allegations of wrongdoing.<\/a><\/p>\n

Garcia interviewed more than 75 witnesses in the course of his investigation, and has recommended further action against individuals and made proposals for future bidding processes.<\/p>\n

Fifa’s ethics chief Hans-Joachim Eckert said a decision on the findings of Garcia’s report would not be likely until next spring.<\/p>\n

He also told BBC Sport the information contained in the report would\u00a0“never” be made public.<\/a><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Fifa executive committee member Theo Zwanziger has predicted the 2022 World Cup will not be held in Qatar because of its climate.<\/p>\n

Summer temperatures in the Middle Eastern country can reach as high as 50C.<\/p>\n

“Medics say they cannot accept responsibility with a World Cup taking place under these conditions,” the German\u00a0told Sport Bild.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

“Fans from around the world will be coming and travelling in this heat and the first life-threatening case will trigger an investigation by a state prosecutor. That is not something that Fifa Exco members want to answer for.”<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Fifa president Sepp Blatter\u00a0admitted it was a mistake to choose Qatar<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0said the tournament would be moved to winter.<\/a><\/p>\n

A medical report submitted to Fifa members as part of the bidding process warned of the searing temperatures.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A report into alleged corruption at Fifa, football’s world governing body, could lead to criminal charges, a Conservative MP believes. Damian Collins has asked the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) to request a copy of the report into the bidding processes for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. American lawyer Michael Garcia\u00a0filed his report this month,\u00a0but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":50138,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[29,3],"class_list":["post-50137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-dr-mahamudu-bawumia","tag-ghana-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=50137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/50138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=50137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=50137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=50137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}