Football
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German Football League president says UEFA could leave FIFA

German Football League (DFL) president Dr. Reinhard Rauball has claimed UEFA could leave FIFA if the World Cup bidding report is not published in full.

A 42-page summary of the report into the 2018 and 2022 tournaments was released on Thursday, clearing Russia and Qatar as hosts and accusing several other bidding nations of impropriety.

However, investigator Michael Garcia said the summarised version released by judge Joachim Eckert "contains numerous materially incomplete and erroneous representations of the facts and conclusions detailed in the investigatory chamber's report."

FIFA confirmed on Friday that he had lodged his intention to appeal.

Eckert, the chairman of the adjudicatory chamber of FIFA's independent ethics committee, expressed surprise at Garcia's response, but the situation has increased calls for the full report to be made public.

Rauball has now told kicker that, if world football's governing body fails to release the full details, their European counterparts could force an exit from FIFA jurisdiction.

He said the report appeared to be a "serious attempt" to investigate the bidding process for the two tournaments but added: "The result was a breakdown in communication, and it has shaken the foundations of FIFA in a way I've never experienced before.

"As a solution, two things must happen: Not only must the decision of the ethics committee be published, but Mr Garcia's bill of indictment too, so it becomes clear what the charges were and how they were judged.

"Additionally, the areas that were not evaluated [in the report] and whether that was justified [should be published]. It must be made public. That is the only way FIFA can deal with the complete loss of credibility.

"If this doesn't happen and the crisis is not resolved in a credible manner, you have to entertain the question of whether you are actually still in good hands with FIFA."

Asked about the potential consequences if that were not the case, he said: "One option that would have to bear serious consideration is certainly that UEFA leaves FIFA."

The president of the German FA (DFB), Wolfgang Niersbach, had also been critical of the report process, telling ARD Tagesschau: "Things haven't exactly been cleared up in the way we all hoped, so that all the public's doubts were washed away."

The 42-page summary had been particularly critical of England, but Football Association chairman Greg Dyke described the process as "a bit of a joke" in an interview with Sky Sports News.

The situation has led two members of FIFA's Executive Committee to call for Garcia's full report to be made public in order to ensure "complete transparency."

FIFA vice president and CONCACAF president Jeffrey Webb and Sunil Gulati, the president of the USA Soccer Federation, released a joint statement on Friday, which read: "Given the disagreement between the two chairmen of the Investigatory and Adjudicatory Chambers of the ethics committee, and to ensure complete transparency, we believe the full report conducted by the FIFA ethics committee ... should be made public as soon as possible."

ESPN FC's Germany correspondent Stephan Uersfeld contributed to this report.

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