The British government has intervened in the row over Michael Garcia’s report into the Controversial 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding process, saying Fifa risks damaging the reputation of football if it does not publish it in full.

The culture secretary, Sajid Javid, has written to Fifa president Sepp Blatter in support of the FA’s call for Garcia’s report to be published in full, with appropriate redactions to protect whistleblowers.

When Fifa ethics judge Hans-Joachim Eckert published his summary of Garcia’s report that effectively cleared Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022 of serious wrongdoing and praised Fifa’s handling of the process, the US attorney immediately disowned it.

In the letter Javid said the way world football’s governing body had handled the saga “further calls into question Fifa’s independence and transparency”.

Javid added: “Without the disclosure of the full report, FIFA risks not just further damage to its own credibility, but now significant damage to the reputation of football as a whole.”

The intervention of the British government, understood to be endorsed by the prime minister David Cameron, is likely to be shrugged off in Zurich where there is a long held belief that England’s antagonism towards Fifa is rooted in being sore losers over the 2018 bidding farce.

Cameron was a member of the bid delegation that sought to convince the 22 voting ex-co members in December 2010 but only picked up a paltry two votes.

“I understand there are challenges around confidentiality within the report, but this is a challenge faced by many public bodies in conducting their work in an open and transparent way. It should not be beyond Fifa, working with those who contributed with an expectation of confidentiality, to publish the full report in a format that does not contravene assurances of confidentiality where they cannot be waived,” said Javid’s letter.

“Fifa is rightly proud of having a membership greater in number than the United Nations. With that in mind, Fifa has a public duty to operate with the highest ethical standards, and with the levels of transparency and good governance expected from an international body representing 209 nations, hundreds of millions of players and billions of supporters.”

After initially saying the case was closed, Fifa has now made the full 430 page Garcia report available to Domenico Scala, chair of its audit committee, who will decide how much to share with the executive committee. They will then decide if any further action should be taken, in addition to the disciplinary process already set in train against various individuals.

Blatter has also forwarded a copy of the report to the Swiss Attorney General but has been heavily criticised for failing to handle its release in a transparent fashion.

Javid’s intervention came as it emerged Sony would definitely not be renewing its top tier sponsorship deal with Fifa at the end of the year. The Japanese electronics giant will join Emirates in declining to renew its sponsorship, but they are expected to be immediately replaced by Qatar Airways and Samsung respectively. Speaking at a meeting of football’s lawmaking body, IFAB, in Dublin Fifa general secretary Jérôme Valcke admitted that it would take years for Fifa to rebuild its rock bottom reputation.

Valcke said he “would be surprised” if Sony extended its deal, which expires at the end of this year, and said Fifa’s image had “reached a level which is definitely a level which we will not go lower than.”