Football Australia boss James Johnson has made his boldest remark but that Australia is severely contemplating placing collectively a bid to host the boys’s 2034 World Cup.
Johnson has extra ammunition in his arsenal than ever earlier than because of the wildly profitable staging of the 2023 Women’s World Cup shared between Australia and New Zealand.
Australian soccer is working on a excessive with the Matildas’ journey by way of to the semi-finals gripping the nation like no different nationwide group has beforehand. A attain of 11.15 million TV viewers for the loss in opposition to England is extraordinary.
Johnson on Friday advised Sky News the conversations a couple of potential 2034 bid want to start out now.
“We will bid for a Men’s World Cup (and) 2034, we’re looking at that right now,” he advised Sky News Australia host Pete Stefanovic.
“I think when you host the best ever Women’s World Cup it starts to open doors so we’ll be looking very seriously at what our chances could look for in 2034.”
The bidding nations combating for the suitable to host the 2034 occasion is not going to be finalised till 2026.
“This current administration under (FIFA president) Gianni Infantino has given us the opportunity to show the world that we can host top competitions,” he mentioned.
“This is one of the crown jewels of FIFA, the Women’s World Cup, I think we’ve made Australia proud and I also think we’ve made the world proud so I think when we bid for a Men’s World Cup we’ll be in good standing.”
Infantino earlier labelled this the “greatest Women’s World Cup ever” — however Australia is aware of solely too nicely that such issues don’t matter within the halls of energy at FIFA headquarters in Zurich.
Australia has been burned earlier than. Some issues should not forgotten. The nation was besmirched on a world stage the final time Australia bid for the boys’s World Cup with the 2022 bid group’s $46 million fiasco setting Australian soccer again 20 years. While virtually $50 million in public cash was poured down the event within the bidding course of, simply $5 million was spent on the bid that secured the rights for the 2023 Women’s World Cup in Australia. It additionally helped that in the course of a world pandemic, Australia was the most secure guess.
The scandal behind the 2022 bid famously ended with one vote bing solid for the Australian marketing campaign.
The shockwaves of the catastrophe are nonetheless rippling by way of Australian sport — and there are a lot that can flip their again on any future plans to host the boys’s World Cup on house soil for that actual motive.
It’s straightforward to see why.
Here is only a style of the commentary that’s nonetheless sitting within the mouths of the Australian public since Qatar was infamously awarded the rights to host the event through the 2010 vote.
The most searing commentary comes from Aussie FIFA whistleblower Bonita Mersiades and her 2018 e-book ‘Whatever It Takes’.
Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter, who resigned, was suspended and finally banned from being concerned in soccer after a 17-year reign as the pinnacle of the game, reveals why the failed bid is such a nationwide humiliation that any future bidding aspirations might be tainted from the beginning.
“You never had a chance because you were never going to be competitive for the broadcasters,” Blatter mentioned within the e-book revealed 5 years in the past.
“Not the time zone, not the money. It is obvious. We have to make enough money at the World Cup for the next four years and Australia wouldn’t be able to do it.”
Far worse than that, the grubby strategies that have been utilized by some contractors performing on Football Australia’s behalf has maybe completely damaged the belief between Aussie soccer’s governing physique and the Australian sporting panorama.
According to Mersiades, three consultants employed by the Football Australia price the Australian taxpayer “around $15 million including disbursements”.
A abstract of an inner investigation into corruption that occurred through the bidding course of for the 2022 World Cup launched by Judge Hans-Joachim Eckert of FIFA’s ethics committee concluded members of the Australian bidding group violated bidding and ethics guidelines, whereas elevating “indications” of makes an attempt to divert funds to nations with ties to voting FIFA govt members.
There was additionally the case of $50,000 being spent on pearl earings for the wives of some FIFA delegates.
While Infantino has made moved to dilute the affect voting members have, there’s nonetheless a stench that comes from soccer’s overlord.
The 2022 World Cup went forward in Qatar regardless of revelations the bidding group had used secret “black operations” propaganda marketing campaign to undermine rival bids, a whistleblower advised an English newspaper in 2018.
one of many leaked emails the Times claims to have obtained was despatched to Qatar’s deputy bid chief Ali al-Thawadi, and allegedly reveals the state was conscious of plots to unfold “poison” in opposition to different bidders within the working earlier than Qatar gained the suitable to host the cup in December 2010.
Journalist Dominic Bossi wrote on the time the bid had “ended in humiliation” with Australia drowning within the “shark-infested waters of FIFA”.
Mersiades herself advised The Age final yr: “We didn’t win because fundamentally we played the game so late. We ran a dodgy bid, with three international consultants who ran a reputational risk. And we just didn’t have as deep pockets as Qatar. It’s as simple as that”.
According to the ABC, Mersiades additionally wrote: “We didn’t win because we (Australia) played the game the FIFA way. We were diminished. My country, and the game I love.”
Originally revealed as Australia ‘will bid’ for 2034 males’s World Cup, regardless of $46m black eye
Source: www.dailytelegraph.com.au
