Probe awarding of 2022 World Cup to Qatar

Posted by coininfifa on May 22nd, 2014

Investigators from soccer’s global governing body will meet with every country that bid for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups as part of a probe into possible violations of FIFA’s FIFA 14 Coins PC , it was reported.

Michael Garcia, a former US Attorney for New York, is leading the inquiry, but Cornel Borbely will take over areas involving Russian and American bids for the events to avoid a conflict of interest for Garcia, according to an emailed statement from his law firm, Kirkland & Ellis LLP, and reported by Bloomberg.

The FIFA probe into the award of the 2018 World Cup to Russia and the 2022 event to Qatar will “extend at least several months into 2014,” the investigative panel said.

“Our role, in this or any other matter, is to investigate potential violations of the FIFA Code of Ethics,” the investigatory panel said in the statement.

“We will consider any allegations and evidence indicative of such violations, and we urge anyone with potentially relevant information to contact us now.”

The probe into the award of the 2018 World Cup to Russia and the 2022 event to Qatar will “extend at least several months into 2014,” the panel said.

It comes as the man who led the official inspection of the bidding nations said FIFA made a mistake awarding the World Cup to Qatar and will put the health of players and fans at risk if the tournament is not moved from the summer.

Speaking on SkyNews, Harold Mayne-Nicholls warned playing in Qatar in summer would be "impossible" even with the cooling technology proposed by the organising committee.

Mayne-Nicholls, the former chairman of the Chilean FA, said Qatar "was not the best option", but revealed he was certain it would win the 2022 World Cup three days before the decisive FIFA vote in December 2010.

"Three days before the decision, I already had a great percent (certainty) that it would be Qatar, too many people talking about Qatar at that time, so I was not surprised when it was given the World Cup," he told Sky News.

FIFA's decision to award the tournament to Qatar came despite a clear warning from Mayne-Nicholls in his evaluation report.

In the executive summary, he wrote: "The fact that the competition is planned in June-July, the two hottest months of the year in this region, has to be considered as a potential health risk for players, officials, the FIFA family and spectators, and requires precautions to be taken."

Despite this, Qatar polled more votes than the US to win the FIFA 14 PC Coins and spark the greatest controversy FIFA has ever known.