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Newly re-elected Football Federation Australia chairman Frank Lowy has hinted he feels Qatar could yet be stripped of hosting rights for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, saying the last word has not been spoken on the controversial awarding of the event.
The process of awarding the gulf country the event over the likes of Australia and the US, and the awarding of the 2018 tournament to Russia, has been widely criticised in the past year amid ongoing allegations of corruption within world football’s governing body.
Lowy, 81, was formally re-elected for another four years on Monday and laid out his ambitions to continue pushing Australia to becoming a “world class” football nation.
But asked about Australia’s failed bid to host the 2022 event – in which FFA earned only a single vote from the executive committee – Lowy hinted strongly his belief that FIFA could have to cave to pressure from around the world over the bidding process.
“I don’t know whether you recall when I came back from that fateful day (after losing the bid) and I said ‘this is not the last word about awarding the World Cup’,” Lowy said on Monday.
“Well it wasn’t the last word and the last word hasn’t been heard yet.
“Don’t ask me to elaborate because I don’t have a crystal ball … but the media all over the world talking is about that, the awarding particularly of ’22, the state of the FIFA executive committee – all that stuff.
“It’s not over. I don’t exactly know where it will bounce. The only thing I know is it’s not over yet.”
While anger lingers over Australia’s failed $45 million bid, Lowy said FFA’s focus in the coming years would be on strengthening the game domestically and successfully hosting the 2015 Asian Cup.
FFA has also set out ambitious targets for the national team and they are relying on the Socceroos qualifying for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil to ensure a set of financial targets.
Despite predicting a surplus in February, the federation posted a loss of $891,000 for the 2010-2011 financial year due to having to rescue several struggling A-League clubs including the now defunct North Queensland Fury.
Among the on-field targets for the Socceroos are to reach the knockout rounds of the 2014 World Cup and challenge for a position inside the top 10 of the FIFA rankings by 2015.
Lowy said among FFA’s other biggest challenges was to convert more of the 1.7 million participants in all forms of the sport into supporters, agreeing interest in the national team had softened in recent times.
“I am concerned that Australia’s expectations are a little bit too high and that they want us to win all the time and they don’t come and follow it as much as they used to,” Lowy said.
“The competition is hard. Asia has improved a lot, but we have a coach and a good team and I expect to be there (in 2014) but I expect to get a bit more enthusiasm from the country.”
Lowy insisted he had been fully cleared of health problems suffered earlier this year and declared his biggest personal goal to “make the game sustainable.”
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