2022 World Cup must be stripped from Qatar and handed to Australia after Garcia report

Since it was announced in December 2012, FIFA’s decision to award the 2022 World Cup to Qatar has faced stern criticism.

The recent publication of a 2014 report by former FIFA chief ethics investigator Michael Garcia has only exacerbated the matter, expressing concerns at the behaviour of some FIFA executives and bringing to light questionable payments and gifts given to committee members to, presumably, influence their voting.

With the increasing amount of controversy surrounding the Qatar bid, Football Whispers questions whether it’s time for the 2022 World Cup to find a new host.

When his report, compiled in 2014, was not published in full but instead released in summary form by FIFA, US prosecutor Garcia resigned from his position on the ethics commission. Understandably, he felt his findings had not been properly represented.
This led to many speculating that perhaps FIFA had something to hide, that the full so-called Garcia Report contained damning evidence against either or both of the decisions to award the next two World Cups to Russia and Qatar.

At the time, world football’s governing body was under the auspices of Sepp Blatter but the Swiss has since been removed from his post and banned from any involvement in the game for malpractice.

Since, Blatter’s successor, Gianni Infantino, has called for the full Garcia Report to be released. However, it was only when German tabloid newspaper Bild managed to obtain a copy of the dossier and announced plans to publish it as a series that FIFA attempted to get out in front of the story and make the report public themselves.

Though some of Garcia’s findings were damning, there were perhaps not the kind of revelations found within the report that many expected and the general feeling is that FIFA will not seek to remove Qatar as hosts of the 2022 World Cup.
Still, Garcia’s findings were far from flattering for both FIFA and the Qatar bid, with many executives found to have received payments or lavish gifts from those behind the Qatari bid in contravention of FIFA rules aimed to prevent bribery.

For example, Garcia discovered three members of FIFA’s executive committee were flown to Brazil in a private jet to attend a party and meet with the emir of Qatar. Sandro Rossell, the former Barcelona president and advisor to the Qatar bid, who has since been convicted of money laundering, was discovered to have deposited £2million into a bank account registered under the name of the 10-year-old daughter of Robert Teixeira, a former FIFA official and head of the Brazilian FA, although there was no evidence to directly connect this to the Qatar bid.




Aside from the shady monetary transactions and unnecessary gifts, Garcia also reported that FIFA failed to consider the heat of the Qatari climate at the height of summer, where temperatures seldom drop below 37 Celsius, which could pose a health risk to players.

The Qataris have made suggestions to get around climate-related issues – ranging from artificial clouds to a winter World Cup – but none of them are convincing or without issues of their own.
Moving the date of the tournament would present huge organisational complications for European countries who structure their leagues through the autumn, winter and spring.

All in all, there is too much about the Qatar World Cup which either doesn’t add up or at the very least doesn’t sit comfortably with most.

Concerns have also been raised about the fact Qatar is a dry country. Laws will have to be suspended, particularly with FIFA boasting a beer partner, and the country’s attitude towards homosexuality is another sensitive issue which has raised more questions than answers.
Australia – as well as England – were one of the countries to rival Qatar’s 2022 bid. The home of the Socceroos would be a much more fitting host for the game’s greatest tournament.

They have never held a World Cup before but, thanks to the continual growth of the A-League, the stadiums and infrastructure are largely already in place. What’s more, a competition held in June and July would fall in the Australian winter time, meaning there would be none of the heat issues which threaten to hamper the action in Qatar.

It seems unlikely that Qatar will have the 2022 World Cup taken off them at this stage but Australia would be the perfect alternative if that happened.

Source:Sports.yahoo