U.S. Soccer Federation President Sunil Gulati on Wednesday joined the growing number of FIFA executive committee members who are pressing soccer’s world governing body to make publicthe results of an investigative report into the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. In an interview with the New York Times, Gulati said he planned to raise the issue during the executivecommittee’s meeting in Zurich, which begins Thursday.
“If we’re going to truly support the idea of transparency and change within FIFA, it has to be made public in the truestmeaning of the word,” he said. “That doesn’t mean only to the executive committee. It has to be more.” He added: “Right now, the whole story is not about what’s inthe report but whether it should be made public. And that isn’t ideal for anyone.”
Under FIFA’s current rules, the report, which was compiled by Michael Garcia, theformer USA attorney general in Manhattan, will not be made public. After FIFA ethics committee chairman Hans-Joachim Eckert confirmed as much on Wednesday, Garcia himself issued a statementcalling for his 350-page report to be released.
Earlier this week, a number of other FIFA executive committee members expressed their support for making the report public, including FIFA VPsPrince Ali bin al-Hussein from Jordan and Jim Boyce from Northern Ireland.
Meanwhile, in a separate interview, executive committee member