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FFA deny wrongdoing in 2022 World Cup bid

Frank Lowy will step down as FFA chairman in November. (AAP Image/Dean Lewins)
14th November, 2014
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Football Federation Australia have released a strong statement after being accused by FIFA of bribing parties for votes in their $45 million bid for the 2022 World Cup.

They also refuted claims of any wrongdoing, and insist they are still dissatisfied with the process they engaged in for the bid.

The full statement from the FFA is here:

Australia conducted a clean bid for the 2022 FIFA World Cup and has rejected assertions to the contrary arising from the release overnight of the FIFA Ethics Committee report, the Football Federation Australia (FFA) Chairman Frank Lowy AC said today.

“FFA did its best to run a competitive and compliant bid and to do it wherever possible hand-in-hand with the Australian Government, with the customary government oversight,” said Lowy.

“We also involved, wherever possible, other bodies such as UNICEF and FIFA itself. In addition, the financial management of the bid funds were routinely reported to Government and reviewed by independent external auditors.

“I made it clear to all involved in our bid that we would run a clean campaign and I stressed this objective at every opportunity.”

In relation to the football development programs, Lowy said that the Australian Bid was encouraged by FIFA to take every opportunity to demonstrate Australia’s commitment to football, especially in developing regions.

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“It’s clear that this led us to be misled in particular relating to a payment made to CONCACAF which was later revealed to have been misappropriated,” said Lowy.

“In hindsight, there are many things we might have done differently and we remain disappointed by our experience of the World Cup bidding process.”

Lowy stressed that the Australian Bid had co-operated fully with the Garcia inquiry and in August this year received Mr Garcia’s written thanks for this cooperation.

FFA will now await advice from FIFA on the next steps in the process following the apparent dispute between chairmen of the FIFA Ethics Committee’s Adjudicatory and Investigatory chambers.

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