Garcia Resigns From FIFA Role

Michael Garcia, who led the investigation into the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding process, has resigned from the FIFA Ethics Committee in protest over the handling of his findings.

The former US attorney cited a "lack of leadership" at the top of FIFA in a resignation statement. He also says he lost confidence in the independence of his ethics committee colleague, German judge Joachim Eckert.

Garcia quit a day after the FIFA appeals panel rejected his challenge of Eckert's summary of the confidential 430-page investigation dossier.

His resignation comes a day before FIFA's Executive Committee (ExCo) meeting takes place in Marrakesh, Morocco.

Garcia had been tasked with investigating the bidding process for the 2018 World Cup, won by Russia, and the 2022 tournament which will be hosted by Qatar.

He produced his report on September 5 this year, and on November 13, Eckert made public a 42-page summary of Garcia's findings.

That same evening, Garcia protested that Eckert's summary was a misrepresentation of his report, with mistakes and serious omissions. He made a formal appeal against the summary, which on Tuesday FIFA ruled was "inadmissable."

In a lengthy resignation statement, Garcia made strong criticisms of the leadership at the top of FIFA, but says he will not be taking his case to any higher legal organisation, such as the Court of Arbitration for Sport, insisting that such a move would not be practical.

He wrote: "For the first two years after my July 2012 appointment as independent chairman of the FIFA Ethics Committee’s Investigatory Chamber, I felt that the Ethics Committee was making real progress in advancing ethics enforcement at FIFA. In recent months, that changed...

"A brief I filed with the FIFA Appeal Committee on November 24, 2014, outlined the Eckert Decision’s most serious failings. Among other points, the brief explained why, when viewed in the context of the report it purported to summarise, no principled approach could justify the Eckert decisions, edits, omissions, and additions.

"It now appears that, at least for the foreseeable future, the Eckert Decision will stand as the final word on the 2018/2022 FIFA World Cup bidding process.

"While the Appeal Committee’s decision notes that further appeal may be taken to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, I have concluded that such a course of action would not be practicable in this case. No independent governance committee, investigator, or arbitration panel can change the culture of an organisation."