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When the Federal Government established a taskforce in early January to take over the running of Australia’s World Cup bid from the FFA, it gave itself a deadline of the end of February to complete all stadium negotiations in readiness for the bid book which is due in May.
I’m not sure if anyone has noticed, but tomorrow is actually the last day of February (unless we’re in a leap year).
So what have we heard in the last six weeks or so about how the taskforce is going with this delicate exercise?
We’ve heard nothing.
In recent weeks, the only news we have heard that has anything to do with the World cup bid is that:
1. Etihad Stadium has confirmed that it has no interest in hosting World cup games (its management said as much back in November last year); and
2. The President of the AFC has urged all five member nations who are bidding for 2018/2022 to put forward one nation only (and no prizes for guessing which nation the Pres would think is the appropriate one to put forward).
So the public is left to surmise what to make of this impasse. These are my educated guesses.
State Governments
At least three state/territory governments have no interest in spending any money on anything to do with the World Cup, namely WA, SA and the ACT.
Why? For two reasons:
1. The cost, not only of stadium development, but everything to do with staging the World Cup, far, far surpasses any perceived benefit; and
2. Given that there is no World Cup bid without the participation of all three, there is actually no incentive for any of them to put their hand in their pockets, their view is a simple and proper one: if the Feds want it bad enough, let them pay for it 100%.
Dire Financial Straits
Following on from the last point, none of the State Governments, nor the Federal Government itself, is in any great shakes in relation to their respective budgets.
In fact, with an election round the corner, and a budgetary situation that shows no sign of improvement over the next four or five years, the Commonwealth is hardly in a position to splash the cash.
The various states are in an even worse position.
Administrative niceties
Strip away the emotion, the passion, the willingness to put in the hard yards, the longing for glory from so many quarters, and we’re left with the hard cold reality of putting the deal together.
And while the FFA continues to lobby for a blank cheque, and while the Prime Minister and his senior advisers are happy to promise it, fortunately for the taxpayer, we have learned officials from the Attorney-General’s department, the Finance department and the Treasury, advising their superiors that it’s not that simple.
There are processes to go through, not just to appropriate the necessary money, but to commit the Commonwealth to all those contingent liabilities that may ultimately go out up to fifty years.
What Minister would want to officially sign off on a guarantee that in dollar terms is greater than the annual Commonwealth budget?
Hopefully one day in the future we will recognise those public officials who ultimately saved the Australian taxpayer’s collective bacon.
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