Australia 2022 launches legal action against newspaper

By Duncan Mackay
British Sports Internet Writer of the Year

July 6 – Defamation proceedings by Football Federation Australia (FFA) against The Age newspaper are underway in the Supreme Court of New South Wales, they announced today.

The Age, along with several other newspapers in the Fairfax group, including the Sydney Morning Herald, published a number of articles relating to FFA’s bid for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in the last week, which FFA strongly rejects.

An FFA spokesman said: “The articles serious defamatory allegations regarding the conduct of the bid, including FFA’s accounting practices and its compliance with FIFA regulations and its Government funding agreement.

“FFA completely rejects these serious allegations and is seeking damages.”

On Sunday, Australia’s Government exonerated officials of financial mismanagement.

“In a letter to FFA, the Government’s Football World Cup Bid Taskforce noted that the Taskforce had specified lines of reporting to FFA and that a document allegedly obtained by The Age newspaper was merely an informal planning document,” the FFA said in a statement.

Fairfax newspapers had also reported that bid leaders offered gifts to FIFA Executive Committee members.

“All of our operations are in line with FIFA guidelines and our financial reporting meets our obligations under the funding agreement with the Government,” said Ben Buckley, the FFA chief executive.

“Any suggestion otherwise is completely wrong and the government has accepted that.

“The eyes of the football world are on this bidding process and any misleading suggestions and or implications have the potential to cause significant damage to the Bid, FFA and Australia.”

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