FIFA Ethics Committee Is Unable to Remove World Cup 2022 From Qatar Even If Bribes Took Place, Says Report

FIFA’s ethics committee has no power to remove World Cup 2022 from Qatar even if bribes took place, according to a report today in The Daily Telegraph newspaper.

The newspaper quotes a source who said:

“If [FIFA ethics investigator Michael] Garcia finds something which was wrong, the ethics committee has the right to take sanctions.

“But does he have the right to say ‘based on what I have found the World Cup should not be played in Qatar?’ No, he does not have that right.”

FIFA’s ethics committee can only sanction individuals. It has no power over FIFA’s decisions. Only FIFA’s executive committee, the one who voted for Qatar in the first place, has the power to change its decision.

Journalist Philippe Auclair recently wrote that “If Qatar was guilty of wrongdoing – which has never been satisfactorily substantiated – the real culprit was FIFA, which had allowed for this nefarious process to take place in the first instance.”

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