Sylvia Schenk, a German lawyer, said that 'the tensions were obvious' between US lawyer Michael Garcia and Hans Joachim Eckert, his German colleague at football's top body. Mr Garcia had written the main report on the selection of Russia and Qatar as future World Cup locations. He had said seven weeks ago that Mr Eckert's role was 'limited' in the investigation. However, Mr Eckert wrote the summary of the report which was published last week.

Ethics

Ms Schenk commented on Mr Eckert's background in criminal investigations, saying he had 'a lot of experience, especially with corruption cases. He has a good reputation in Germany but with Fifa he is not in a criminal court, where he has to look at the clear distinction of whether this is criminal or not criminal, but the difficult question of whether this is ethical...So you have a criminal judge acting like a criminal judge because it is the only way he can act'.

Investigations

Mr Garcia has also had a history in criminal investigations, having been a former prosecutor who launched a number of corruption probes and served in New York where he supervised investigations into securities fraud. He was involved in the investigation which saw the resignation of Democratic governor Eliot Spitzer over a prostitution scandal. Sources: FT and BBC