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The world’s
governing football body, FIFA, published its report on Tuesday on its findings
into allegations that the Russian side unduly influenced the bidding result for
the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
According to
the report from FIFA: "the overall inquiry was led by Mr. Michael Garcia,
independent Chairman of the Investigatory Chamber of the FIFA Ethics Committee
and Dr Cornel Borbely, independent Deputy Chairman of the Investigatory Chamber
of the FIFA Ethics Committee."
"Since
Mr Garcia recused himself from the investigation of the Russia 2018 Bid
Committee ("Russia Bid Committee"), the review of the Russia Bid
Committee's conduct during the Bidding Process was conducted solely by Dr
Cornel Borbely and all findings and conclusions in this report with respect to
the activities of that team are his alone."
Alexei
Sorokin, the secretary general of the Local Organizing Committee (LOC)
Russia-2018, said in an interview with TASS regarding the published report
that: "It is good that the report of Garcia had been finally issued."
"We are
glad that it had been done and there are absolutely no complaints in regard to
us," Sorokin said.
"One
should read the report’s conclusions regarding the Russian bid to see that all
allegations on behalf of Western media are totally ungrounded," Sorokin
added.
Russia won
the bid to host the 2018 World Cup at the FIFA Congress in Guatemala on
December 4, 2010. The victory came following a tight race against the bid from
England, the joint bid from Portugal and Spain and the joint bid on behalf of
Belgium and the Netherlands.
The country
selected 11 host cities to be the venues for the matches of the 2018 World Cup
and they are Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sochi, Kazan, Saransk, Kaliningrad,
Volgograd, Rostov-on-Don, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg and Samara.
The matches
of the 2018 World Cup will be held between June 14 and July 15 at 12 stadiums
located in the 11 mentioned above cities across Russia. Two of the stadiums are
located in the Russian capital.
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