AMMAN: FIFA presidential contender Prince Ali of Jordan has renewed his call for publication of the Garcia Report into the 2018-2022 World Cup scandal writes KEIR RADNEDGE.

Prince Ali bin Al Hussein issued his demand over concern that the Garcia Report might fall prey to the same ‘watering down’ alleged to have been imposed on a review of the stalled FIFA reform process.

At the weekend the German magazine Der Spiegel claimed that a draft report into the reform process by governance expert Mark Pieth had been returned to him for revisions including the removal of passages critical of the current FIFA president Sepp Blatter.

Prince Ali said: “Media reports over the weekend are a reminder of why we need Michael Garcia’s report into FIFA’s World Cup bidding process to be published in full.

“There does appear to be evidence of interference in the drafting of the so-called independent Pieth report by FIFA. This is deeply worrying and suggests something is not right at the heart of FIFA governance.

“Without publishing the Garcia report in full, FIFA faces the ongoing public suspicion that interference may also have occurred in that case.”

Garcia, a United States lawyer, quit as FIFA’s independent ethics investigator after delivering his report out of concern that it had been misrepresented in a brief published summary by German ethics judge Hans-Joachim Eckert.

Prince Ali is one of three candidates planning to challenge incumbent Blatter for the presidency at FIFA Congress in Zurich on May 29.

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