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Blatter going won't solve FIFA woes: Lowy

3rd June, 2015
7

Sepp Blatter’s resignation is a watershed moment but won’t alone reform soccer, Football Federation Australia chairman Frank Lowy says.

“Sepp Blatter’s resignation should open the door to major reform,” Lowy said in an open letter released on Wednesday.

“I say should because FIFA’s problems are deep-rooted and tangled in a culture that has developed over decades.

“It will take a united, concerted effort by its football associations to fix the mess.”

In the wake of Blatter’s resignation, Lowy told of his “bitter grievance” at Australia’s failed bid to host the 2022 World Cup.

Australia spent $46 million on a bid which attracted just one vote of support in a process unexpectedly won by Qatar.

“We ran a clean bid. I know that others did not, and I have shared what I know with the authorities,” Lowy said.

The bid process is under fresh investigation by Swiss authorities, amid the separate arrests of 14 people connected to FIFA on corruption charges.

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One of the arrested men, Jack Warner, is alleged to have stolen $500,000 from Australia’s bid.

Lowy said Warner, the president of CONCACAF and a FIFA executive committee member since 1983, had a “reputation as a colourful character”.

But the chief of the north and central American football association was considered “hugely influential” to the World Cup vote, Lowy said.

CONCACAF asked for a $4 million donation towards a centre of excellence in Warner’s Trinidad and Tobago, but the FFA and Australian bid team offered $500,000.

Lowy said the Australian money was paid to CONCACAF but it was ultimately found that Warner “had committed fraud and misappropriated the funds – in other words he had stolen the money from CONCACAF”.

“We asked CONCACAF to give our money back because it wasn’t used for the purpose we intended, and were advised by FIFA to wait until the inquiries were complete. Those inquiries are still ongoing,” Lowy said.

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