The chief investigator for FIFA, soccer's governing body, on Wednesday said he would review fresh information related to his investigation into the bidding processes for 2018 and 2022 World Cups, but won't delay his final report.
Michael J. Garcia, a former U.S. prosecutor, is examining the bidding processes to host the next two World Cups, amid allegations that there may have been financial payoffs behind Qatar's winning bid to host the event in 2022.
The scandal has grown in recent weeks, after fresh claims by soccer officials and journalists were published in U.K. newspapers, and there has been some criticism of Garcia for supposedly refusing to examine the new information. In a June 2 statement, Garcia said that the phase for interviewing witnesses and gathering materials would be completed on June 9, and his report would be submitted about six weeks later.
In his speech to FIFA's congress on Wednesday, Garcia said his team has examined the reports and related documents, and said that the "majority of that material has been available to us for some time, since well before the recent wave of news reports." He said he's gone to "what appears to be the original source" of that data, and will review all of the information before issuing a final report.
