Listening to the Frank Lowy, as we have done across numerous interviews over the past few weeks, the thing that resonates is his own lack of absolute faith in the system that surrounds him.
He says that the FIFA Executive Committee members tell him they like Australia, that they are friends of Australia, that they will vote for Australia, but then suggests they are likely to be saying the same things elsewhere.
It speaks to the machinations with the corridors of FIFA.
Who knows?
If one had to take a read on Lowy’s body-language over the past few weeks, you would say we’ve run a great, long race, but that we’ve faded a slight bit in the home straight.
Not that there’s any doubt that Lowy and his bid team have stayed the distance.
It’s just that others appear to be coming home strong, particular Qatar, who are reported to be making all the noise.
Money just might have the last say. Should we really be surprised if that’s the case?
Lowy knows a thing or three about that subject, but it is his love of football and Australia, and unifying the two, that has been driving him throughout this project.
He looks a tired man and those closest to him would likely admit he has aged more in the past couple of years than in the five or six before that. Looking at him from afar, the bid looks to have taken a toll.
Perhaps his biggest blow came at home, around the middle of the year, when the AFL and its leader, Andrew Demetriou, played hard-ball over grounds, schedules and whatever else he could think of.
For a country that needed to show FIFA that the whole nation was behind the bid, it wasn’t the greatest look.
Demetriou did anything but Come Play. It was more like complain.
If Lowy isn’t able to pull off his biggest win yet, it won’t be without trying. Indeed, Australia, and particularly its football followers, should be indebted to him, regardless of the outcome.
If there is one thing he has re-iterated throughout, it’s the message that the world’s showpiece is safe in our hands. Why would you risk it elsewhere, he has argued, hoping that, when push comes to shove, and others start to fall, that message will resonate more and more.
But it is a message also being espoused by the United States, who, like Qatar, also have the dollars.
Ultimately, it could be a battle between the dollars of Qatar, the sense of Australia and the dollars and sense of the USA.
Either way, Lowy and his crew have given it a fair crack, and Australia has undoubtedly made a favourable impression on the powers that be in Zurich.
The fact we are even in the mix is a story worth celebrating, but if Australia can survive till the last ballot, and somehow summon the 11 or 12 votes it needs, it will, to borrow a Lowy line, “be the icing on the cake.”
Redb
Roar Guru
good job.
jimbo
Roar Guru
That's your Victorian accent . . .
NF
Guest
Love the blog dasilva 100% true
MagpieFlag
Guest
axtinct.....
MagpieFlag
Guest
That's very, very good!
MagpieFlag
Guest
Ben, look up "irony" in the dictionary and then re-read your post... BTW, when I lived in London I lived no where near the Aussie ghettos, loathed the bogan Aussie and very much followed the local game (still do now that I am back here) Two of the few times I ventured out west I watched the socceroos play at Craven and, interstingly given your post, Loftus Road, and witnessed some the most embarrassing cringing form of boganry from the GGArmy types...draped cronulla style in aussie flags and abusing anyone who wouldn't get up and sing with them etc The few times i went to watch aussie rules in a pub I did indeed witness some bogan Aaustralian football fans but the couple of guys who played in the London league that i met were certainly NOT in that class
jimbo
Roar Guru
You're right UK Steve. Not looking good – football will be extinct in less than 5 years and we’ll all be watching Aussie Rules and talking with a Victorian accent. I’m going to move my family to Communist North Korea where football is the national game and you have more freedoms in life and what you choose to watch or play. And no AFL ads!
MagpieFlag
Guest
@UK Steve That's the thing dude. From what I've observed, it is not from the first/second generation aussies that the anti AFL zealotry emerges from - it is cringing anglo-celts! Once again, the AFL have done nothing but act in its own interest. There was absolutely no obligation to hand over its stadiums and cease to play its normal season with out compensation. Do Tony T et al, not see ANY deficiences in how the FFA approached this whole bid given the need for "national unity" and given the bids reliance on other codes stadiums and the public purse?
Ben
Guest
Good on The Liberals for stopping labor's utter wastage on the bogan game and on their labor mate demetriou who has been getting freebies from thieving labor politicians, those who throw our taxes down a bottomless sink of incompetence for years. With incompetent state labor governments about to get thrown out of their respective parliaments Australia wide, it'll be good to see the Liberals stopping the wasting of our hard earned taxes on funding AFL games, demetriou can pay for them himself.
punter
Guest
I would have to agree with Aussie Rules Steve, that is probably the best summary of the code war stouches here in Australia I have read.
Ben
Guest
UK Steve is probably another one of those drunken Aussie that lands himself in Shepherd’s Bush and embarrasses himself and his nation with his behaviour. Many Aussies in London are for the most part an embarrassment to the human race. They have a local football team, QPR who are top of the championship yet instead of assimilating into English culture by following the indigenous English game and their local club, they bring with them their weird, foreign sport played by mean wearing tight fitting, weirdly shaped costumes and an oval ball that is red. Being in the UK, why does he exactly care about what happens here in Aus, he has left this country and should focus on bettering his newly adopted home rather than prying his nose into events occurring here without actually living here or paying taxes here.
UK Steve
Guest
That's brilliant and so true. Well done!
UK Steve
Guest
Yep the FFA definitely dropped the ball on this one. And then that Tahitian guy goes and gets expelled for corruption. You wouldn't think it was possible for one sport to shoot themselves in the foot so often.
UK Steve
Guest
Soccer gets more than a fair go in Australia. If hardly anyone goes to A League matches then why would the mainstream media report on it. Makes me laugh when soccer fans call AFL and NRL bogan sports when its widely viewed that soccer around the world has the worst behaved crowds in any sport.
Koops
Roar Rookie
So someone who calls himself "the world game" is calling for revolution on other sports, to me that sounds like a bogan, insular thing to do.
Koops
Roar Rookie
West Coast waiting list is 28,000 thousand people, that is just amazing, they have more people waiting to get a seat than the a-league gets to a whole round of matches.
jamesb
Guest
Lets put things in perspective. This bid was almost dead in the water back in may, when the afl was playing hardball with the FFA over the availability of the m.c.g. The bid should have been sorted out much earlier, and therefore the FFA would have concentrated on other aspects of the bid. THat I think is the key area that Australia would lose the bid (plus oceanias vote going by the wayside)
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
UKSteve How's your assimilation going in the UK? Based on your rants on this forum it appears you have NOT abandoned your insignificant and insular local Aussie game and you have not assimilated and embraced the British & European sporting culture.
The World Game
Guest
Football has never got a fair go in Australia and once we get the world cup I expect the fear from the AFL/NRL to kick into overdrive as for too long that being stuffed down our throats as Titus mentioned but a revolution is coming soon and the insular,bogan sports would be put where they really belong down on the bottom of the food chain.
Titus
Guest
What a load of balls Steve, everyone has to like Rugby League and AFL to be a true a Aussie do they? Well I'm an Aussie of Anglo heritage and I think AFL and RL is a mindless, bogan borefest stuffed down our throats by a truely appalling media. Frank Lowy is an example of an immigrant who has "assimilated" into the Aussie way of life. You should go and assimilate in England Steve.