World Cup Bids 2026: Bidding Corruption Controversies Taints FIFA’s Image

By Staff Reporter | Nov 14, 2014 08:44 AM EST

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World Cup Bids 2026 - Nearly four years after FIFA chose Russia and Qatar to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, the allegations of bidding corruption by the two nations have tainted FIFA's esteemed image. And the much-awaited verdict on World Cup hosts Russia and Qatar turned into another day of FIFA confusion.

The process of the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bids was believed corrupt even before the final referendum, with suspicions of bribes and backdoor contracts, Yahoo! News reported. Eventually, FIFA started to confront the controversies but still remained chaotic. And the World Cup bid 2026 is now foreseen tainted with fraud as well.

In the 2022 World Cup, the US joined the bid but lost it to Qatar. Controversies arose since the US has nearly all the conceivable infrastructure suited for the tournament. Whereas Qatar, a Middle East nation where temperatures rise into the 120s, needed everything to be built and though very rich, has also a fierce record of human rights violations. While the 2026 bid still remained unclear.

FIFA also confronted the realities of both labor abuse and the fact that extreme desert heat in June and July isn't favorable to high-level play, let alone athlete and fan safety.

Prior to the World Cup bids 2026, FIFA remained under waves of controversies for the 2018 and 2022 biddings. And the federation hired a former American district attorney to conduct a corruption investigation.  Michael Garcia, the New York lawyer, produced a 430-page report only to claim Thursday that FIFA's publicly released 42-page summary that was a written wipeout in an effort to protect top executives including FIFA president Joseph "Sepp" Blatter.   

Earlier this year, Garcia, appointed to investigate the bidding processes of the World Cup bids 2018 and 2022, delivered his findings to the head of the Adjudicatory Chamber, Hans-Joachim Eckert. As reported by Goal, Garcia had pushed for the report in its whole to be published while Eckert stated that only his findings would go public.

On Thursday, Eckert followed through his decision and his findings were published. Certainly, the report fell short of recommending the World Cup bids be stripped off Russia in 2018 and Qatar in 2022.

"Today's decision by the Chairman of the Adjudicatory Chamber contains numerous materially incomplete and erroneous representations of the facts and conclusions detailed in the Investigatory Chamber's report," Garcia said. "I intend to appeal this decision to the FIFA Appeal Committee."

Garcia had called for significant details of his investigation to be published. CBS New York said it would triggered clashes with Blatter, who has assisted to protect the privacy of his boardroom associates involved in pursuing special treatment.  

Meanwhile, FIFA also released an official statement in reactions to Thursday's statement by the chairman of the adjudicatory chamber of the independent Ethics Committee.

"FIFA welcomes the fact that a degree of closure has been reached," the federation said. "As such, FIFA looks forward to continuing the preparations for Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022, which are already well underway."

Though the US had lost the 2022 World cup bid, experts said America should push for the 2026 bid.

The corruption incident is still open for past and current members of FIFA's governing panel, but it is uncertain who might be targeted. While much distrust remains and FIFA is as ethically bankrupt as ever, the US shouldn't waver to bring the World Cup bid 2026 back.

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