ZURICH: FIFA’s executive committe will vote next week on whether to publish a redacted version of Michael Garcia’s report into the 2018-2022 World Cup bid scandal writes KEIR RADNEDGE.

A month ago the world federation’s president, Sepp Blatter, said that legal reasons prevented the publication of the work compiled by the independent ethics investigator.

World football’s governing body had insisted releasing the report would not be possible for legal reasons.

However, under a proposed amendment to Fifa’s ethics code, an edited version of the report might be released.

A decision will be taken by the exco next Friday in Marrakesh, Morocco.

It remains questionable whether it would be possible to protect the identities of witnesses who co-operated with the investigation on condition of confidentiality.

The mere release of certain evidence might point clearly to the source.

However Theo Zwanziger, the German member of the exco, has proposed that Article 36 of the code of ethics which currently restrains publication, could be amended.

The exco, before it votes, will hear an opinion about the publishing potential from Domenico Scala, the independent chairman of FIFA’s audit and compliance committee who has been brought in as a referee between Garcia and the ethics judge, Hans-Joachim Eckert.

Garcia produced a 430-page report in September after a two-year investigation into alleged corruption. Eckert ruled it could not be made public for legal reasons  and released his own report, based on Garcia’s work, which cleared World Cup hosts Russia and Qatar of wrongdoing.

Garcia then appealed against the summary of his report, claiming that some of the facts and conclusions reached by Eckert were “erroneous”.

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