Australian soccer bosses say they won’t make the same mistakes again after a report detailed evidence of the nation making improper payments in its failed 2022 World Cup bid.
A fortnight after Australia announced intent to bid for the women’s 2023 World Cup, the report found evidence suggested the nation made improper payments to influence the vote of a FIFA member.
The report by FIFA ethics investigator Michael Garcia scrutinises, in part, Australia’s failed bid to host the 2022 World Cup.
Australia’s $46 million bid got just one vote in support before the showpiece event was awarded to Qatar.
Individuals involved in the Australian bid won’t face further fallout after Garcia probed Football Federation Australia (FFA) dealings with Jack Warner, Trinidad and Tobago’s FIFA executive member.
Warner was also president of the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF).
The FFA paid Trinidad and Tobago’s team costs to play a friendly against an Australian under 20 team in Cyprus in 2009.
FFA, a year later, paid Warner $500,000 – funds meant for a sporting centre of excellence he allegedly stole after they were deposited in his personal bank account.
“Those points are strong evidence that FFA made improper payments intended to influence the vote of an executive committee member,” Garica’s report says.
“The record provides significant evidence that the $500,000 was paid with the intention of influencing Mr Warner’s World Cup vote.
“Australia’s bid team perceived the payment as a benefit for Mr Warner, as did Mr Warner himself.”
The 430-page Garcia report on the awarding of the World Cup 2018 and 2022 hosting rights to Russia and Qatar, respectively, was published by FIFA on Wednesday.
An abbreviated version was released in 2015.
FFA said the full report “does not raise substantive new matters” about Australia’s failed bid.
“FFA has said repeatedly that the bid process for 2018 and 2022 was deeply flawed and that mistakes were made by the Australian bid team,” FFA said in a statement on Wednesday.
“However, FFA notes that FIFA continues to reform its governance, including relating to future tournament bids, and is confident mistakes of the past will not be repeated.”
FFA said the bid’s finances were routinely reported to the federal government and reviewed by external auditors.
“Its payment to CONCACAF was also investigated by the Australian Federal Police, which found that no Commonwealth offence was identified,” the statement said.
Neil
Guest
Past history, do not care, they played in the game as it was at the time.
Pauly
Guest
IMO it should be a secret ballot of preferential voting for all 209 member associations. Nobody knows who votes for whom and it's a lot harder to bribe 209 people than 24. Let the Australian Electoral Commission run it.
Perry Bridge
Guest
It looked before hand like that's how it would play out and it did and after the event Frank Lowy still appeared surprised in his public performances. That to me was the most surprising part. How good an actor Mr.Lowy is.
Seven Words Sam
Guest
The Aussies are amateurs at international bribery.
valhalla
Guest
also wonder what role the doyen of sbs soccer played in all this .... lets not forget mr les murray has been mentioned
Cool N Cold
Guest
After so many in FIFA sacked, the organization remains feudal. Still 24 Exco members to vote for the World Cup hosting nation, not like IOC's modern democratic system of one-nation-one-vote.
Chris
Guest
So both England and Aus have been named as making "dodgy payments". So what about the winning bids of Russia and Qatar? Was there any mention of them in this report? Because whatever England and Australia did wrongly you can bet your bottom dollar Russia and Qatar were infinitely worse.
jamesb
Guest
Well they are the one's held accountable. Buckley was the CEO and Frank Lowy was the chairman. Both of them should be held most responsible.
Jack Russell
Roar Guru
Are they the ones held accountable for this? If not, who is?
Realfootball
Guest
We haven't heard the last of this. 40 million dollars of tax payer money was spent. The only saving grace is that Buckley and Lowy are no longer in their positions.
Gavin R
Guest
Doesn't surprise me. We all know how corrupt it is. If you're not bribing, you've already lost. I really, really hope this all changes with everything thats been happening the last 12 months.
Swampy
Guest
To be honest, even our efforts at bribing were poor. I fully support the idea of hosting a World Cup but we are light years behind others in swaying favour with bribes and under Sepp Blatter's watch we just provided loose change to the FIFA delegates. There were rumours deals for Military equipment and Gas supply to a couple of countries from Qatar were for WC votes. We are talking billions in play. But these countries are not novices in the art of the deal and the extent of official involvement is unlikely to ever come to light. $47m would have bought about 2 million footballs for junior soccer. As we have about 100,000 teams in Australia that is 20 balls per team - or basically a lifetime supply.