The report into the bidding process for the rights to host the next two World Cups cannot be made fully public for legal reasons, though excerpts of it may be, FIFA’s ethics judge Hans-Joachim Eckert said yesterday.

He is studying the report produced by counterpart Michael Garcia into whether there was corruption in the process which led to the 2018 tournament being awarded to Russia and the 2022 event to Qatar, and expects to issue a statement on his findings by mid-November.

“The statement will contain an overview of the investigation report, a summary of the main findings, conclusions and recommendations of the report, as well as a brief evaluation of the same,” Eckert said in an interview published on FIFA’s website.

One of his tasks would be to decide which parts of the report could be made public, he added. Eckert cannot strip either Russia or Qatar from hosting their tournaments but can press charges against individuals.

Several members of FIFA’s executive committee have called for the report to be made public, as well as FIFA presidential candidate Jerome Champagne, a decision Eckert said fell to him and his deputy Alan Sullivan. [The Peninsula]