FIFA votes to keep Russia, Qatar as 2018, 2022 World Cup hosts

The FIFA executive committee voted on Friday to uphold the next two World Cup hosts' winning bids, The Associated Press reports.

The governing body has been criticized for its selection process that led to the choice of Russia and Qatar as host countries for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, respectively. A press release from FIFA, reported by NPR, said that while there were "irregularities" in the bidding process, "it is clear that (they)... are not of an extent that would lead to the bidding process as a whole being qualified as significantly illegal or in contravention of the Statutes."

FIFA President Sepp Blatter also said the organization has voted to publish parts of a 430-page investigation into the World Cup bidding process. The group had originally said the report would remain confidential, and ethics investigator Michael Garcia, who put together the report, resigned suddenly this week in protest of what he said was FIFA's weak, unredeemable leadership. However, the report cannot be published until FIFA's secrecy rules are satisfied, Blatter noted, the timeline of which is uncertain.

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Sarah Eberspacher is an associate editor at TheWeek.com. She has previously worked as a sports reporter at The Livingston County Daily Press & Argus and The Arizona Republic. She graduated from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.