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Chelsea Owner, Abramovich dragged into World Cup Scandal

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Like wild fire, the flames coming out of the release of dirty deals that were involved in the award of World Cup 2018 and 2022 is spreading beyond those directly involved in governing football globally.

Chelsea owner, Roman Abramovich was on Tuesday night dragged into the scandal when the hitherto hidden 403 page report of former independent ethics investigator Michael Garcia, was released after it leaked to a German publication, Bild.

According the report, a football foundation linked to the Chelsea owner “destroyed” computers used by Russia’s bid team for next year’s tournament.

The 39-page findings of an investigation into the country’s successful attempt to land the game’s biggest event confirmed that Russia 2018 leased computers from the Konoplyov Football Academy, the administration of which had been taken over by Abramovich’s Academy of Football in 2006.

    A summary of the report published in November 2014 said the bid committee had made “only a limited amount of documents available for review” by investigators after those computers were destroyed upon being returned to their owner.

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Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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