FIFA agrees to publish Garcia report into World Cup corruption

FIFA's executive committee has unanimously agreed to publish an "appropriate" form of the Garcia report into allegations of World Cup bidding corruption.

Officials at a meeting in Morocco agreed to the proposal without a vote being taken - but nothing will be published until the ethics committee charges against three FIFA ExCo members have been dealt with.

American lawyer Michael Garcia produced a 430-page report into the bidding for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, won by Russia and Qatar respectively, but only a disputed summary has been published.

He quit on Wednesday as FIFA's ethics investigator after losing his appeal challenging the findings to clear Russia and Qatar to host the World Cups.

The FIFA ExCo was given a presentation by Domenico Scala, the head of FIFA's audit and compliance committee, who suggested the report should be published in an "appropriate form" - with all names and other details redacted.

This was agreed to by the members without a vote - and avoided a vote on German member Theo Zwanziger's proposal to change the ethics code rules which would allow full and immediate publication.

Britain's FIFA vice-president Jim Boyce, from Northern Ireland, welcomed the move.

"I am pleased the the FIFA executive committee decided without a vote to publish this report," he said.

"It shows that people at FIFA at the moment do desire transparency and the sooner we can get on with talking about the game of football that we all love, the better."

It is also understood that FIFA's ExCo appointed Zurich-based Swiss lawyer Cornel Borbely to replace Garcia in an acting capacity. Borbely had been Garcia's deputy and took charge of the investigation into the Russian and American bids.