THE status of Russia and Qatar as World Cup hosts seemed even more secure Tuesday after FIFA dismissed ethics prosecutor Michael Garcia’s appeal against the handling of his investigation into the bidding process.

    FIFA said its appeals panel ruled the case “not admissible.”

    The former U.S. Attorney 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 the case against all nine bidding candidates last month. He concluded that any corruption or rule-breaking was of “very limited scope” and did not influence the votes. The FIFA executive committee chose Russia to host the World Cup in 2018 and Qatar won the vote for the 2022 tournament.

    Garcia filed his appeal last month only three hours after FIFA published Eckert’s report and welcomed “a degree of closure.”

    (SD-Agencies)