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When soccer's international governing body publishes information Thursday based on a long-running investigation into the controversial bidding process that bestowed billion-dollar host privileges for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup tournaments to Russia and Qatar, a tiny bit of sunlight is expected to fall on the shadowy corners of world soccer.
FIFA said Wednesday it will post a 'statement' about the investigation that will go online on FIFA's website at about 4 a.m. in New York, according to Hans-Joachim Eckert, the chairman of the adjudicatory chamber of FIFA's ethics committee.
The BBC reported Wednesday that Eckert would clear Qatar of wrongdoing in the bidding process for the 2022 Cup, while the English Football Association will be admonished over its relationship with then FIFA vice-president Jack Warner, who resigned in amid a voting scandal for the FIFA presidency in 2011.
According to a BBC source, the Football Association will take stock of the report once it is published and wants to see Eckert's findings in relation to the conduct of other bidding nations. The violations are believed to be minor, according to the BBC.
Eckert has previously said the statement will include only a 42-page summary of the findings and recommendations of the probe conducted by former U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia and included in his 430-page report; despite FIFA president Sepp Blatter's claims that Garcia's report cannot be released in full because of legal issues surrounding the executive committee and others involved in the bidding process.
For his part, Garcia released a statement in late September urging FIFA to make his report public to the extent that was 'appropriate.' He has said that most of the report could, and should, be released with redactions to protect crucial witnesses.
'I don't know if they want that,' said one source familiar with FIFA's intense secrecy on matters involving its internal processes.
In other words fans should not expect either the Moscow or the Qatar tournament to be reassigned; U.S. Soccer, which bid for the 2022 World Cup and was deeply disappointed when the tournament was awarded to Qatar, has made no contingency plans to host the event despite a bidding process that is widely believed to be rife with kickbacks, bribery and other forms of corruption.
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A watered-down account of the report, however, does not mean that FIFA bigwigs are off the hook. As the Daily News reported earlier this month, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York is investigating possible crimes at the highest levels of soccer in conjunction with foreign authorities, including the Swiss government. It is possible, according to sources, that the Swiss legislature will consider taking action regarding FIFA's tax exempt status, a threat FIFA has faced before.
Stripping FIFA of its tax status status would cost it billions and bring some transparency to an organization famous for its impenetrable inner workings. Among those who have raised this subject is Mark Pieth, the former chairman of a FIFA governance committee.
'You don't have to change a single law or the status of these companies,' Pieth said at a conference last year. 'If you cannot judge whether they're non-profit, you cannot give them tax-exempt status. The consequence could be that they will flee the country; they will run away but tough luck. That is what the state needs to do. With FIFA, you have the difficulties that the world is facing vis-a-vis corruption and you have a patronage network of people who believe they are in a private environment. You don't have to go so far to realise this.'
The Qatar project has met with an assortment of problems beyond questions of illegal inducement -- including inhumane labor conditions and concerns that the weather will be so cruelly hot in the summer of 2022 that players will be at risk.
There has been considerable controversy over the lack of transparency surrounding Garcia's report. Several high-profile soccer figures, including Michel Platini, head of UEFA, have said they would be happy to see the report become public.
Jordan's Prince Ali bin Al-Hussein, a member of the FIFA executive committee who was not on that board in 2010, when the questionable voting took place, has also pushed for publication of the report.
'The entire football family and those who follow the game worldwide have a full right to know the contents of the report in the spirit of complete openness,' he said last month. 'The main findings should also be fully disclosed to the general public.'