Garcia Report

The Garcia Report is the name given to a report made by Michael J. Garcia into allegations of corruption in world association football. It was commissioned by FIFA, the world governing body of association football, in July 2012. Garcia sent his investigation to FIFA on 5 September 2014.

On 17 July 2012, in the wake of announced anti-corruption reforms by the President of FIFA, Sepp Blatter, FIFA appointed former United States attorney Michael J. Garcia as the chairman of the investigative branch of its Ethics Committee, while German judge Hans-Joachim Eckert was appointed as the chairman of the Ethics Committee's adjudication chamber. The reformed Ethics Committee was also given the power to retrospectively investigate old cases. As Garcia and Eckert fulfilled FIFA's statute of them or their families not having a paid connection to soccer in the previous four years,The Guardian wrote that "Garcia and Eckert are regarded as key independent figures from outside the so-called 'football family' who can help restore FIFA's credibility after bribery and vote-buying scandals."

Upon their appointment, Garcia and Eckert were immediately tasked to investigate alleged illegal payments made by FIFA marketing company International Sports and Leisure (ISL) to former FIFA president Joao Havelange and former executive committee member Ricardo Teixeira, as well as to evaluate the behaviour of FIFA president Sepp Blatter in the affair. ISL had specialized in buying and selling broadcast rights to FIFA events such as World Cups on contracts worth millions of dollars. The case was closed on 30 April 2014 after an investigation by Garcia, with Eckert ruling that bribes had been paid by ISL between 1992 and 2000 to Havelange, Teixeira and Nicolas Leoz, then-president of CONMEBOL. As Havelange (honorary president of FIFA) and Leoz had already resigned from their posts earlier in April 2014, no "" further action was taken. In contrast, Blatter was exonerated of "criminal or ethical misconduct", but was also described as "clumsy" and it was questioned whether he "knew or should have known over the years before the bankruptcy of ISL that ISL had made bribes to other FIFA officials".

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