FIFA's Garcia Report: Key questions answered Cup corruption? FIFA's Ethic Committee head Michael J Garcia What is the Garcia Report and what was the document published? It is a report by former US attorney Michael Garcia into allegations of corruption in world football. It was commissioned by FIFA in July 2012 and concluded two years later. At the same time, Garcia was appointed the head of the investigatory chamber of FIFA's ethics committee. While FIFA announced that the full report would never be made public due to legal reasons, amid extreme public pressure, German judge Hans-Joachim Eckert, chairman of the adjudicatory chamber of FIFA's independent ethics committee, authorised the publishing of a 42-page summary of the report on Thursday. What did the summary say about Qatar and Russia? WIll they remain as hosts? Russia is absolutely certain to remain as host in 2018 and the report found zero evidence that there was any corruption in the Russian bid - despite the bid team destroying the computers that held the key internal bid documents and all communications. The eight-year wait for Qatar remains their hurdle; much can go wrong in that time, despite clinging onto the tournament rights for the first four years. However, the report does nothing to increase the pressure on FIFA to strip the tiny emirate of the hosting rights and run a new vote. Qatar is criticised as having some "potentially problematic" activity but "not suited to compromising the integrity of the FIFA World Cup 2018-2022 bidding process." The report goes to some lengths to distinguish the bid from actions made by private Qatari investors and the role of disgraced ex-FIFA vice-president Mohamed Bin Hammam. Is Australia any chance of hosting the 2022 World Cup? As it stands, no. Football Federation Australia, the Football Association and the United States Soccer Federation were all pinning their hopes on this report exposing the allegations of corruption in Russia and Qatar once and for all. However, the report has done the reverse, clearing Qatar and Russia of wrongdoing and detailing the extent of wrongdoing in the respective bids of Australia and England. What does the report say Australia did wrong? Eckert's summary lists several concerning actions undertaken by Australia's bid teams. It details the use of a bid consultant - Peter Hargitay - and how he fooled Australia's bid organisers into "creating the appearance that he was influencing the bidding process." The summary suggests Australia's bid team "attempted to direct funds the Australian government had set aside for existing development projects in Africa towards initiatives in countries with ties to FIFA executive committee members with the intention to advance its bid to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup." The summary outlines how Australia committed funds to develop projects in Oceania and North America in the hope of securing votes from OFC's executive committee representative Reynald Temarii and ex-CONCACAF president Jack Warner, two men banned from football for life. The report's focus on Australia concludes: "There are certain indications of potentially problematic conduct of specific individuals in the light of relevant FIFA ethics rules." Who was the Australian bid team's "whistleblower" mentioned in the report? Former FFA head of corporate affairs Bonita Mersiades. She met with Garcia's investigations team twice, in New York and Australia. However, the FIFA summary reveals her evidence was "not relied on" in any form in the making of the final report: "The relevant individual further undermined its own reliability by speaking with the press about its communications with the investigatory chamber, despite having agreed to refrain from doing so to protect the integrity of the ongoing investigation." But Mersiades contests this, saying the basis of Garcia's analysis of the Australian bid was extracted from her evidence. Which other countries were criticised? England was the only country criticised more than Australia, primarily for their conduct with Warner. The report claims England demonstrated largesse - such as sponsoring dinners in his native country and helping an acquaintance find employment in the UK - in trying to win Warner's support and also acquiesced to the demands of two other executive committee members. Japan and Korea were given minor reprimands, but members of the Spain-Portugal bid could face further sanctions after "being particularly unco-operative in responding to the investigatory chamber's requests." How does Garcia view FIFA's summary of his report? He claims the summary is an "incomplete and erroneous" review of his report. He issued a statement saying: "Today's decision by the chairman of the adjudicatory chamber contains numerous materially incomplete and erroneous representations of the facts and conclusions detailed in the investigatory chamber's report. I intend to appeal this decision to the FIFA Appeal Committee. However, it would appear most likely that Garcia is referring to inconsistencies in minor details rather than any major philosophical objections. What happens now? Will we ever see the Garcia Report in full? It appears unlikely FIFA will ever release the report, for the final document is alleged to incriminate several key figures in international football politics. However, with Garcia claiming the FIFA summary does not fairly represent his report, he may push for the report to be made public.