FIFA report on ISL affair due within weeks
The man behind FIFA's investigation into the ISL affair hopes to have a preliminary report ready within a couple of weeks.
American lawyer Michael Garcia, who heads up the investigatory arm of Fifa's ethics committee, has been looking into events surrounding the rights agency - which went bust in 2001 - that potentially implicate a number of senior football figures in a bribery scandal.
In a France Football interview quoted in the Guardian, Garcia said: "I've got to examine it like I would examine whatever else might raise the question: 'Have there been violations in the conduct of these people?'
"I've got to follow normal procedure and present this report to Judge [Hans-Joachim] Eckert, who's the president of the adjudication chamber; he'll read my report and take his decisions.
"I'll follow procedure, obviously informing the executive committee of what I'm doing.
"A timetable has been established. There's a meeting of the executive committee on 20 and 21 March. My goal is to have at least sent a preliminary report [by then]."
Those investigations surround World Cups in the 1990s, but there are also more recent events into which Garcia is looking.
Allegations continue to fly around concerning the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, won by Russia and Qatar, and Garcia has urged any witnesses to come forward.
"The time has come for people who have information to come to me," he said. "I haven't got any preconceived ideas on what's happened or what's not happened.
"Well [I'm saying to them]: 'If you truly believe it, the moment has come to show yourself. There are things that we can do, under the parameters of the code, that will protect your anonymity.'
"I will work with them under this report. What wouldn't be...useful would be that under this wide-ranging inquiry that I'm leading, later, there are people in it who say, 'Well, they got the facts wrong', when they knew that beforehand.
"You know something? Tell me! I'm working, working hard to uncover what's there or isn't there. [We've got] the framework, the channels through which people have got to come if they really think they have something to say. On whatever it might be! On whichever aspect of whichever question related to the World Cup. It is a message that has got to be heard.
"People have talked, written articles but what you have now is an official body which is in charge of this matter and it's important that people go see me to tell me what they've got [at their disposal]."