The British government has urged FIFA to publish the full findings of its recent investigation into the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
Secretary of state for culture, media and sport, Sajid Javid, has written to the president of football's world governing body calling for Michael Garcia's report to be made public.
Garcia's 430-page document, which was never fully published, cleared Qatar and Russia of any wrongdoing in their bids to host the showpiece event, although the chief ethics investigator later claimed that the findings appeared to be 'incomplete and erroneous'.
Javid has now become the latest to weigh in on the debate, saying: "Without the disclosure of the full report, FIFA risks not just further damage to its own credibility, but significant damage to the reputation of football as a whole. I understand there are challenges around confidentiality within the report, but this is a challenge faced by many public bodies in conducting their work in an open and transparent way.
"It should not be beyond FIFA, working with those who contributed with an expectation of confidentiality, to publish the full report in a format that does not contravene assurances of confidentiality where they cannot be waived. FIFA is rightly proud of having a membership greater in number than the United Nations.
"With that in mind, FIFA has a public duty to operate with the highest ethical standards, and with the levels of transparency and good governance expected from an international body representing 209 nations, hundreds of millions of players and billions of supporters."
Meanwhile, FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke has vowed to rebuild the organisation's faltering reputation in the wake of ongoing claims of corruption at the highest level of the game.
Daniel Lewis
