FIFA probe report into Qatar 2022 World Cup due within weeks

The fate of Qatar’s staging of the 2022 World Cup should soon be settled, FIFA’s lead investigator suggested Monday, outlining a plan to conclude his bribery probe by next week and report findings in July.

Former U.S. prosecutor Michael Garcia could hold the future of Qatar's multi-billion dollar World Cup in his hands, after new allegations of impropriety in the bidding stage were published by British newspaper The Sunday Times.

Despite vehement denials by the Qatar World Cup organizing committee, the claims have sparked fresh calls for the tournament to be moved elsewhere, if corruption is proved. 

“After months of interviewing witnesses and gathering materials, we intend to complete that phase of our investigation by June 9, 2014, and to submit a report to the Adjudicatory Chamber approximately six weeks thereafter," Garcia said in a statement. “The report will consider all evidence potentially related to the bidding process, including evidence collected from prior investigations.”

Garcia and his investigating team have been traveling across the world meeting officials who worked for the nine candidates ahead of the December 2010 votes, in which Russia was chosen for the 2018 World Cup and Qatar was picked for the 2022 World Cup. He was expected to speak with Qatar soccer officials on Monday, but declined further comment on the meeting.

The allegations of corruption at the heart of soccer's governing body threaten to overshadow the run-up to the four-yearly World Cup, which is due to begin in 10 days in Brazil.

"It’s a shame because you feel like the game should take the center stage right now and deal with these other factors later,” Eric Zillmer, director of athletics at Drexel University and sports author, told Al Jazeera on Monday.

The Times article reported that a "senior FIFA insider" had provided "hundreds of millions of emails, accounts and other documents" detailing payments totaling $5 million that Qatari official Mohamed bin Hammam allegedly gave football officials to build support for the bid. In response, the Qatar 2022 organizing committee said bin Hammam "played no official or unofficial role in the bid committee."

Meanwhile, Peter Goldsmith, a member of FIFA's Independent Governance Committee, became the latest international soccer official to say that the decision to hold the event in Qatar must be revoked if corruption is proved.

"I believe that if these allegations are shown to be true, then the hosting decision for Qatar has to be rerun," Goldsmith, a former British attorney general, told BBC radio.

But some say it's not that easy. 

“I think it would be very difficult to get a re-vote,” Zillmer said. "It’s very hard to undo legislative issues like that ... it’s never been done before." 

Losing the hosting rights would be a blow to Qatar's efforts to raise its global profile. Any rerun of the bidding could favor the losers in the FIFA vote held in 2010 — Australia, the United States, Japan and South Korea.

Last month FIFA president Sepp Blatter described the awarding of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar as a “mistake” because of its sweltering weather conditions in June and July, when the tournament is due to be played.

Ultimately, Zillmer said, only a change of leadership would present a chance for more transparency and reform with respect to the bidding process. 

“Until that happens, [it] will always be under a cloud — so to speak, even though there are no clouds in Qatar,” he said. 

Philip J. Victor contributed to this report, with wire services