FIFA president Sepp Blatter has ruled out revisiting the vote for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups after the world governing body's executive committee agreed unanimously that an "appropriate" form of the Garcia report should be published.
Blatter said "external legal experts" supported the view that "there are no legal grounds" to revoke the controversial vote in 2010 to award the World Cups to Russia and Qatar, said Blatter in a statement.
FIFA's executive committee agreed unanimously that an "appropriate" form of the report into World Cup bidding by Michael Garcia, the ethics investigator who resigned earlier this week, should be published but with names and other details removed.
Officials at a meeting in Morocco agreed to the proposal without a vote being taken - but nothing will be published until the ethics committee charges against three FIFA ExCo members - Angel Villar Llona of Spain, Belgium's Michel D'Hooghe and Thailand's Worawi Makudi - have been dealt with.
American lawyer Michael Garcia produced a 430-page report into the bidding for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, won by Russia and Qatar respectively.
He quit on Wednesday as FIFA's ethics investigator after losing his appeal challenging the findings to clear Russia and Qatar to host the World Cups.
The FIFA ExCo was given a presentation by Domenico Scala, the head of FIFA's audit and compliance committee, who suggested the report should be published in an "appropriate form" - with all names and other details redacted.
This was agreed to by the members without a vote - and avoided a vote on German member Theo Zwanziger's proposal to change the ethics code rules which would allow full and immediate publication.
UEFA president Michel Platini called for publication of the Garcia report as soon as possible.
He said: "It was important that the FIFA executive committee decided today to publish the Garcia report. I have always battled for transparency and this is a step in the right direction.
"Let us hope that the report can now be published as quickly as possible. The credibility of FIFA depends on it."
"Let us hope that the report can now be published as quickly as possible. The credibility of FIFA depends on it." -Michel Platini
Britain's FIFA vice-president Jim Boyce, from Northern Ireland, welcomed the move.
He told Press Association Sport: "I am pleased the FIFA executive commitee decided without a vote to publish this report.
"It shows that people at FIFA at the moment do desire transparency and the sooner we can get on with talking about the game of football that we all love, the better."
Garcia's five main recommendations for future World Cup bids were:
- Bidding countries should no longer be allowed to fund football development projects in countries other than their own. Several bidding nations including Australia and Qatar funded projects.
- The rules around bidding nations providing gifts, organising friendly matches and the role of consultants need to be tightened up. All bidding countries provided gifts - among them paintings from Russia, England gave designer handbags, Japan provided expensive cameras. England also played a friendly against Trinidad and Tobago.
- Bid teams should be subject to a strict legal obligation to allow an audit of their campaign.
- Bidding countries should be legally obliged to store all documents relating to their activities and to keep them available for FIFA for a specified period. Russia's bid team told Garcia's investigation it had lost all their files.
- FIFA should never again vote on two World Cups at the same time. FIFA has already accepted this was a mistake.
FIFA also confirmed that a final decision on the timing of the 2022 World Cup will be taken in March - November/December 2022 remains the most likely time in order to avoid the extreme heat of the summer.
The last meeting of the task force looking at the dates will take place in Doha, Qatar, on 23 February. The executive committee also supported the creation of an independent body to oversee a programme to improve workers' rights in Qatar.
Meanwhile, new rules banning third party ownership of players will come into force on May 1 next year, though existing agreements will be permitted until a player's contract expires.
In other decisions, the ExCo agreed to scrap the age limit of 45 for referees - officials instead will have to take an annual fitness test.
A FIFA statement said: "The executive committee... approved the proposal from the referees committee that every FIFA referee over the age of 45 shall be carefully evaluated by the referees committee every year according to technical assessments, medical examinations and fitness tests."
Prize money for the women's World Cup will rise by 50 per cent, $10million in 2011 to $15million in 2015, $2million of which will go to the winning team.
