Prince Ali: 'FIFA must publish Garcia report now'

By Neil Wilkes, Editor-in-chief | 27 December 2015

FIFA presidential candidate Prince Ali demands an immediate release of the report into alleged corruption over bidding for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

Prince Ali has insisted that football's world governing body FIFA should publish its report into alleged corruption over World Cup bidding immediately.

The report was compiled for FIFA by independent ethics investigator Michael Garcia in 2014 and examined the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 tournaments, which are due to be held in Qatar and Russia respectively.

Rather than publish Garcia's report in full, FIFA instead released its own 42-page summary of the findings, clearing the two nations of any wrongdoing. Garcia subsequently resigned, describing the summary report as "incomplete and erroneous" and claiming that he had found "serious and wide-ranging issues" during his investigation.

Speaking today, Prince Ali urged for the full report to be released as soon as possible. "People need to know what has been going on at FIFA," he said.

"[FIFA need] some basic norms, like publishing the Garcia report immediately, because even those who are running for the position of FIFA president... need to know what has been going on in this organisation, and the public needs to know as well."

Prince Ali is one of five candidates seeking to replace Sepp Blatter as FIFA president in an election on February 26.