Top British lawyer supports Garcia in Fifa scandal

Lord Goldsmith, the former British attorney general and a former member of the Fifa independent governance committee, has backed the US lawyer Michael J Garcia and called for major reforms to the body.

Lord Goldsmith expresses disappointment over Garcia report treatment Paolo Bona

Lord Goldsmith said, in a letter to the Sunday Times, that he was 'shocked and disappointed' by recent events relating to a report - on the selection procedures of the venues for the next two World Cups - by Michael J Garcia, a US lawyer called in to investigate events at Fifa. Last week Mr Garcia resigned after a summary - which he regarded as misleading - of his report was published. Football's governing body has now decided to publish all or some of it - but many commentators fear that it may yet  be doctored before publication. 

Virtually unregulated

Lord Goldsmith described recent events as a 'farce'. He said that recommendations that he, Lord Goldsmith, and his colleagues on the independent governance committee, had made seemed not to 'have been taken into account'. Referring to the Swiss location of Fifa, he wrote: 'I see no alternative, therefore, but for some external body to take charge and to force change from Fifa now that it seems self-regulation has failed. The Swiss authorities allow Fifa to operate virtually unregulated in Switzerland.' Source: Sunday Times

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