http://www.espnfc.com/fifa-world-cup/story/2144647/fifa-report-clears-qatarrussia-but-criticises-england-over-world-cup-bids

A FIFA judge has cleared Russia and Qatar of corruption in their winning bids for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups in a report published on Thursday.

FIFA ethics judge Hans-Joachim Eckert formally ended an investigation into the bidding contests almost four years after the vote by the governing body's executive committee.

No proof of bribes or voting pacts was found in an investigation that was hampered by a lack of access to evidence and uncooperative witnesses.

England, however, was heavily criticised over its bid to host the 2018 tournament.

FIFA prosecutor Michael Garcia blasted Eckert's report on Thursday, saying it "contains numerous materially incomplete and erroneous representations of the facts and conclusions detailed" in Garcia's own report.

The former U.S. Attorney said in a statement that he would appeal to the FIFA ethics committee.

A 42-page report by German judge Eckert, the chairman of the adjudicatory chamber of FIFA's independent ethics committee, ruled on Garcia's investigation -- and the findings ended the possibility of a rerun of the voting process.

Qatar had faced numerous allegations of corruption, but the report turned much of its fire on England's conduct, saying it had "damaged the integrity of the ongoing bidding process."

It said the England 2018 bid team's attempts to secure the FIFA executive votes apparently controlled by disgraced ex-vice-president Jack Warner included securing a job for a family friend in Britain and "violated bidding rules."

But the investigation found that any rule breaches by Qatar, Russia and England were of "limited scope" and "far from reaching any threshold that would require returning to the bidding process, let alone reopening it."

Warner was said to have "showered" the England 2018 bid team with "inappropriate requests" which were "often accommodated."

"Relevant occurrences included Mr. Warner pressing, in 2009 and again in 2010, England's bid team to help a person of interest to him find a part-time job in the UK," the document read.

"England 2018's top officials, in response, not only provided the individual concerned with employment opportunities, but also kept Mr. Warner apprised of their efforts as they solicited his support for the bid."

The report said England 2018 had picked up the bill for a 35-thousand-pound gala dinner for Caribbean officials, also providing "substantial assistance" for a training camp for an under-20 Trinidad and Tobago team in 2009.

Warner asked for favours for his Trinidad football club Joe Public FC, and the investigators found that "the bid team often accommodated Mr Warner's wishes in apparent violation of bidding rules and the FIFA code of ethics."

These FIFA niggas are fooling who?