An investigation into the decision to award the 2022 World Cup to Qatar, initially scheduled for completion this month, is only likely to be finished in September, FIFA said in Zurich yesterday. “We expect to deliver our report to the adjudicatory chamber by the first week of September 2014,” said a statement issued by FIFA on behalf of its ethics committee. Former US attorney Michael Garcia has been leading an internal probe by FIFA’s ethics committee into allegations of corruption in the run-up to the vote in December 2010. Garcia, who began his investigation 18 months ago, had said in June that he expected to deliver his report by around the end of this month. Qatar has denied all allegations of corruption. When complete, Garcia’s report will be handed to German judge Hans-Joachim Eckert, head of the ethics committee’s adjudicatory chamber.
