ZURICH — FIFA has dismissed ethics prosecutor Michael Garcia's appeal challenging how his World Cup bid investigation was handled. FIFA says Garcia's appeal was ruled “not admissible.” Garcia had objected to ethics judge Joachim Eckert's summary of the World Cup bid investigation, claiming “numerous materially incomplete and erroneous representations” of his work. Eckert sought to close down the case against all nine bidding candidates. Russia won the right to host the World Cup in 2018 and Qatar won the vote for the 2022 tournament. However, FIFA says Eckert's report “does not constitute a decision ... and as such is neither legally binding nor appealable.” It is unclear if Garcia can now take his appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. The FIFA disciplinary panel also dismissed complaints by two whistleblowers who were interviewed during the 2018-2022 World Cup bid investigation. FIFA says panel chairman Claudio Sulser ruled that the whistleblowers' “breach of confidentiality claim had no substance.” The FIFA statement did not identify Phaedra Almajid, a former Qatar bid staffer, and Bonita Mersiades, who worked for the Australia campaign. Both worked in communications for their countries' 2022 bids and left before the December 2010 vote. Sulser ruled that both women “had gone public with their own media activities long before” FIFA ethics judge Joachim Eckert's investigation summary was published last month. Eckert's report also did not name them. FIFA says ethics prosecutor Michael Garcia advised Sulser that the complaints “were without merit.” Spain detains 32 Spanish police detained Tuesday 32 people in a probe into a riot before a league match in which a fan of the football club Deportivo died after being thrown into a river. Those detained included the two people suspected of causing the death, police said in a statement, adding that the operation was ongoing and that further arrests were possible. A 43-year-old man died after being beaten and pushed into a river in the brawl in which dozens of rioters rampaged with metal bars and knives near Atletico Madrid's Vicente Calderon stadium on November 30. A video camera captured the moment when the man — a member of the Deportivo hardcore fan group Riazor Blues — was heaved over the embankment into the freezing river by his adversaries. — Agencies
