FIFA judge expresses 'surprise' at Garcia's criticism of WC corruption report

German ethics judge Hans-Joachim Eckert has expressed his surprise at the public criticism from FIFA colleague Micheal Garcia over his report into the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

Eckert's report into allegations of corruption, which cleared the charges leveled against Russia and Qatar, and slammed the FA for faulting bid rules was published on Thursday. However, Garcia, who was assigned the task of probing the claims of wrongdoing, publicly expressed his disapproval amidst claims that he had not seen Eckert's final report before it was released to the media, the BBC reported .

Further, Garcia issued a statement, claiming the report to be erroneous. However, the reasons behind such a statement have not been revealed yet.

Defending his stance, Joachim Eckert, while expressing his surprise, said that a lot of his report was heavily based on Garcia's findings.

According to FIFA executive committee members Jeffrey Webb and Sunil Gulati, the need for "complete transparency" and reported "disagreement" between Eckert and Garcia indicate towards the need to bring the full report to the light.

Rejecting these pleas, Eckert further said that it won't be possible in view of respecting the rights of confidentiality for continental law.