World Cup 2022: Qatar to be cleared of corruption over bid

(BBC) - Qatar will be cleared of corruption during the 2022 World Cup bidding process when a Fifa report is published on Thursday, BBC Sport has learned.

It was alleged that Qatar won the staging rights after Fifa officials were paid £3m  to support its bid.

However, Fifa's independent ethics adjudicator, Hans Joachim Eckert, is not expected to recommend a revote.

Qatar was awarded the 2022 World Cup in 2010, beating bids from Australia, the United States, South Korea and Japan.

The decision was a surprise and eventually led to a number of corruption allegations, not just about the 2022 bidding process but also 2018.

Russia won the right to stage the 2018 tournament, beating off England, who won just two votes, as well as joint bids by Holland/Belgium and Spain/Portugal.

Qatar's bid committee always denied claims of wrongdoing, but an inquiry was started, headed by independent ethics investigator Michael Garcia.

The American lawyer was also tasked with looking into the bidding process for both the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

Over a two-year period, Garcia interviewed individuals connected with all nine bids for the tournaments before submitting a 430-page report to Eckert in early September.

After studying Garcia's findings, Eckert, a German judge, produced a 42-page summary, which will be published on Thursday at 09:00 GMT.

The report has not only cleared Qatar, but is believed to admonish the English Football Association for its behaviour during the bidding process.

The FA comes under fire for its relationship with former Fifa vice-president Jack Warner, who resigned in 2011, having been suspended pending an investigation into bribery allegations.

A senior FA source told the BBC that it will take stock of the report once it is published before commenting officially.

It is understood that the FA believes it was fully compliant with Garcia's investigation and thinks any transgressions that are contained in the report will be relatively minor.

The 2018 bid company working on behalf of the FA has since closed, with many of its employees, who were not FA staff members, now working outside the football industry.