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FA chief calls for FIFA to publish full report

LONDON — Greg Dyke has written an emotive letter to FIFA president Sepp Blatter, urging him to insist on the urgent publication of its full World Cup corruption report and saying football’s world governing body “cannot go on like this”.

Football Association chairman Greg Dyke wrote to Sepp Blatter and each member of the FIFA executive committee asking for urgent action. Photo: Getty Images

Football Association chairman Greg Dyke wrote to Sepp Blatter and each member of the FIFA executive committee asking for urgent action. Photo: Getty Images

LONDON — Greg Dyke has written an emotive letter to FIFA president Sepp Blatter, urging him to insist on the urgent publication of its full World Cup corruption report and saying football’s world governing body “cannot go on like this”.

Football Association (FA) chairman Dyke sent letters to Blatter and the rest of the Swiss’ 26-strong executive committee amid the growing row over the outcome of its investigation into the bidding process for the next two World Cups.

FIFA’s civil war over that inquiry has its chief investigator, Michael Garcia, at loggerheads with its head judge, Hans-Joachim Eckert, over the contents of a summary of its findings published last week.

Dyke’s predecessor as FA chairman, David Bernstein, also called for him to lobby UEFA to boycott the World Cup in protest over a lack of reform at FIFA.

But Dyke stopped short in a letter that read: “I am writing to each member of the FIFA executive committee on behalf of the FA to urge you to insist on the publication of Mr Garcia’s full report as a matter of some urgency. As you probably know, the reputation of FIFA was already low in England and much of Europe before the events of last week.

“The failure to publish Mr Garcia’s report and his statement that the summary report which was published contained ‘numerous materially incomplete and erroneous representations’ has resulted in a further decline in public confidence of FIFA.

“We cannot go on like this. Complete transparency is required if the actions of all those who bid, including England 2018, are to be judged fairly.

“I know some of you believe FIFA’s reputation in England is the result of an obsession amongst the English media with FIFA and I know Mr Blatter sees their reports as an unfair attack on the organisation he leads.

“However, in England we see it differently. If you read a whole range of English newspaper reports about FIFA, particularly those in The Sunday Times, they do provide compelling evidence of wrongdoing. They cannot be simply dismissed as ‘racist’ or ‘an attack on FIFA’, as Mr Blatter described them at the FIFA Congress in Brazil.

“Urgent action is needed if confidence in FIFA is to be rebuilt in England. The FA is of the view that this action should start with the full publication of Mr Garcia’s report,” he wrote. THE DAILY TELEGRAPH

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