Lowy, Hargitay's broken promises are poor excuses

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, it enables us to engage in the greatest of revisionism such as referring to the FIFA world cup bid process as "corrupt" in a manner that would suggest that the knowledge of this was widely available prior to the bids going ahead. It begs the question that if everyone knew they were entering into a corrupt bidding process why did they bother? Why did the US, England, Spain/Portugal, Netherlands/Belgium bother. Why did Japan and Korea, two countries who hosted the World Cup as recently as 2002 even consider that they would have a chance for 2022? Why did some countries spend upwards of AUD $100 million on their bids if, as you suggest, the knowledge of the corrupt bidding process was known to them before hand? The bidding process itself was presented as a technical based bid process upon which the FIFA Ex Co would vote on the best bids. The FFA believed it had a very good bid backed up by it's technical report that suggested it was one of the favourites alongside the USA. The downfall of the FFA was not knowing how deep the corruption went and how much it would come to influence the outcome of the voting. That's naivety not misrepresentation!

Skip The NSW Government recently paid a consortium almost $50 billion NOT to build a CBD Metro Link in Sydney. Just think how many World Cup bids that would pay for...

Fussball & Mintox, My Grip isnt with Soccer and the World Cup would have been a boon. Sport generate s money no doubt. The RWC, British Lions tours and Olympics are have generated massive amounts of revenue. The goverment and FFA have to be held accountable for spending $45million. I agree that the potential revenue would have been massive if we had won. To enter in to a selection process that is corupt and subjective and spend $45million is negligent. Mr Lowy, the FFA and the goverment should be held accountable. You could argue that if the FFA and associated misrepresented the Australian chances of winning the even then they should have to compensate the australian tax payer.

And at least you get something concrete for your money!

The 92 Brisbane Olympic Games bid finished a distant 3rd to Barcelona with a mere 10 votes to their 47; 96 Melbourne Olympics Bid was the 3rd bid knocked out from 6 bidding countries and in both we were unfavoured candidates to win the games. Those two bids were pipe dreams and we only realistically had a chance when it came to the 2000 games bid at which we only just pipped China 45 votes to 43. It's no different with the World Cup bid, we believed we had a chance to win it but politics conspired to see otherwise, whose to say that those situations won't change come the next World Cup Bid. Whilst your entitled to your opinion I think in future you might want to do a bit more research, had they pulled it off and won the bid, the Australian economy would have had a huge windfall (estimated by independent analysis as being between $5 billion and $35 billion), the Government was prepared to spend money upgrading stadiums Soccer and the World Cup that would infact benefit other sports such as Aussie Rules, NRL and Cricket more than it would the local Soccer Leagues. And at the end of the day it was a mere $2 per person to put that bid in.

I never said that Subiaco redevelopment was a waste, it's the no.1 spectator sport in the state and fair enough that they should have a stadium big enough to host the huge number of spectators they get. I was making a comparison on the basis that not only did the government build the stadium, it then gave the management of the stadium over to the WA Football Commission (WAFC) and as such all income goes to that sporting body with no requirement for them to put it back into further redevelopment. As such we now see the Government having to yet again shell out taxpayer dollars to redevelop it again which as part of their agreement to do so, has seen them demand an independent management of the stadium. That aside, they have basically poured money into the stadium without any requirement of a return, in the same way that it has spent money on the World Cup bid. I'm simply pointing out that this is what Governments do, you can't then turn around and ask them to pay the money back once it's spent. I think you misunderstand my point, I never said it's a waste, it's all well and good to build a stadium for a sport that is the No.1 sport in the state but to then hand over the stadium to the governing body for the sport means that the Government receives nothing back for a rather significant investment and none of the income of the stadium is ever put back into further redevelopment to the point where the Government is having to shell out a huge some of money to yet again redevelop the ageing stadium. It is because of this that the government is making noise about future redevelopments requiring an independent management of the stadium. This in itself is an admittance that they made a mistake

They did put in a number of Bids for the Olympics. We were always in consideration to host the event. The Majority of the Australian public wanted and supported it. Australia had no chance of getting the Soccer World Cup. For the goverment to spend $45 million on a bid minority sport is ridiculous.

Skip Governments - State & Federal - will always want to invest in sports that improve Australia's global reputation. This is why the Victorian Government continues to invest in the Australian F1 GP even though the event itself loses money; it's why the Victorian Government invested heavily to get Tiger Woods to Australia for a golf tournament; and it's why the Federal Government, the Federal Opposition, every State & Territory Government and every State & Territory opposition gave "a blank cheque" to the FFA for the WC2022 bid. Quite rightly, sports that have ZERO impact beyond Australia's borders should never, and will never, attract significant investment from the Australian Tax Payer.

That stadium at Blacktown is also for cricket, and was jointly funded by the AFL, Cricket NSW or Australia and government bodies, ...... dont see you critical of cricket using the facilities 6 months of the year !.

The only thing I don't get concerning BB is that for a guy who is an ex top marketing exec for Nike, one of the best marketing companies in the world, how could he approve such a poor film as the video presentation shown in Zurich? Must be why he left Nike. Poor performance evaluation.

If true, the money has been spent and recouped by the government from shops, pubs, etc close to the gorund around Subi, and football fans generally many times over. Very different scenario, what have we to show for the incredible waste of 45million by Lowy and his cartel ?. Football is very much a part of the fabric and culture of WA, it is clearly not a waste, but a investment.

Didn't the NSW government also fund or contribute to the V8 Supercar series track construction at Homebush? I seem to recall some sort of financial involvement in a sport that can't be considered mainstream.

The WA Football Commission have had multiple redevelopments of Subiaco Oval since the advent of the AFL/West Coast Eagles, well over 100 million dollars of which they pay nothing and for which they are handed the keys to run the place and accrue any interest from any games and events being staged there.

Skip wont talk about the State Government spending millions on keeping the NRL Grand Final in Sydney - an event that has been held in the same city for over 100 years. There is enough largesse and waste from the Government to last a lifetime - any whingeing about $45 million is pure jealousy from other sports. Refer also to the State Government wasting money on bulding an AFL stadium at Blacktown.....how much was spent on the abandoned Rozelle train line?

Australia put in a number of bids for the Olympics before winning the right to host the Sydney Olympics, bidding by its nature is an expensive business and had we not done so we would not have learnt the lessons we did learn for any future bids. Comparatively we didn't spend that much money compared to other bidding nations (with the US and UK rumoured to have spent more than double what we spent). Like the Olympics winning the World Cup would have brought in billions of dollars to the economy, something that benefits far more than just the people wanting to see the World Cup in Australia or the FFA. The FFA went to the Government to ask for them to fund a bid, the Government did not have to agree but obviously believed that we had a chance and the benefits of winning were worth the $45 million outlay. Before making such comments maybe you should consider that many governments have funded sports stadiums that benefit some sports over others maybe we should ask them to reimburse the Australian tax payer. Lets not forget also that many Australian tax payers follow soccer (unlike your throwaway comment would suggest) and they were happy that we bid.

$45 million wasted on a bid that we were never likely to win in a sport that is not really followed in Asutralia!! I dont care who cares whom what but FFA should have to reimburse the Australian Tax Payer

I thought Lowy handled the situation very well actually and he wasn't making it personal or looking for scapegoats - rather than poor excuses, he was shocked at how few votes we got and was trying to explain why. Quite normal behaviour really. Who do you replace Lowy with - any suggestions? In recent years no one has done more for soccer in this country than Lowy, so what do we do now, throw him out?

Wel said JAJI - Peter Fitzsimmons has no interest in football other than to knock it to sell newpapers. I'm sure Hartigan and Lowy think Fitz-slander is a dickhead too!

Wasn't Mark Bosnich (at some stage) bankrupt ?

i think the mix they have is actually not that bad - hans berger after all is the football man plotting the technical development, lyall gorman is i/c of the HAL, BB is there to look at the next big thing - i spose tv revenue - and lowry oversees it all.