Van Praag wants full disclosure of World Cup report

AMSTERDAM — FIFA presidential candidate Michael van Praag said he would ensure full disclosure of Michael Garcia’s report into the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups if he is elected in May.

Football’s governing body has been under pressure to publish former FIFA ethics investigator Garcia’s report to help shed light on what happened during the turbulent process for the tournaments awarded to Russia and Qatar respectively.

Van Praag, the president of the Dutch football association (KNVB), wants to extend the size of the World Cup to 40 countries, open regional FIFA embassies to assist development and give more money to member associations.

The 67-year-old reiterated his previous promise that he would only serve four years if elected. He is one of three candidates taking on incumbent Sepp Blatter in the election at the FIFA congress in Zurich at the end of May.

Van Praag said his primary concern would be to leave football in a better state for the next generation.

“We must ensure that football continues to be for everyone,” he said at the Dutch football headquarters on Monday as he presented his election manifesto in Zeist.

“We see that the stream of negative reports about our FIFA continues. We see reports that are quashed. We see films by and about FIFA which cost 20 million euros to produce. And we see continuing stories around the allocation of World Cup.

“That’s not my world football body, that’s not the way the sport to which I owe so much, should be portrayed. Normalisation, that’s the key word. The organisation must go back to being plain normal,” Van Praag added.

He said he would insist on transparency as part of the ‘normalisation’ process and would make clear details of the Garcia report, FIFA finances and his own remuneration if elected on May 29. He also wants full details to be publicly disclosed after every major FIFA meeting.

FIFA has endured a non-stop pounding following its decision in 2010 to award the 2018 World Cup to Russia and the 2022 tournament to Qatar.

Corruption allegations surrounding those votes led to Garcia’s two-year-long inquiry into the voting process before he quit as FIFA’s chief investigator in December saying there was no credible leadership at the top.

In his plans for a 40-team tournament, Van Praag outlined an added place for each confederation and a return to the old system where the winners were also automatically through to the following edition as holders.

Van Praag said if elected he would increase FIFA’s annual grant to member countries from $250,000 to $1-million and give added money for infra structure development to countries seeking help.