Lowy calls for compensation, but FIFA says there are no grounds

Sports-mad Australia, viewed by many neutrals as one of the great untapped regions in terms of staging football’s greatest showpiece tournament, ended up receiving just one vote when the 2022 ballot took place in December 2010, and lost out to Qatar along with Japan, South Korea and the favourites, the United States.

Australia spent an estimated A$43 million bidding for a June-July tournament and in a statement, the FFA said FIFA should consider “an in-principle decision that just and fair compensation should be paid to those nations that invested many millions, and national prestige, in bidding for a summer event”.

Should FIFA ultimately shift the tournament to Qatar’s winter, it adds, “a transparent process should be established to examine the scheduling implications for all leagues and a method developed for agreeing appropriate compensation for those affected.”

FIFA president Sepp Blatter, who is seeking backing from his executive committee on October 3 and 4 for his preference for a one-off winter World Cup, argued in a recent interview with this website that nowhere in the 2022 bid registration documentation was it specified that the event “must” take place in June and July.

But Lowy counters that this ignores the spirit of the bidding process, if not the letter, since bids were predicated on the tournament being played during the European summer, as per tradition. Shifting the tournament, he warned, would wreck the Australian sports calendar.

“Our season takes place during the Australian summer to avoid a clash with other local football codes. If the World Cup were to be staged in the middle of our A-League season it would impact on our competition, not just for 2022, but for the seasons leading up to and beyond that date. Clubs, investors, broadcasters, players and fans would all be affected.”

“FIFA has an opportunity now to make the best of a bad situation by embarking on a transparent and orderly approach, unlike the process that led to the original flawed decision in December 2010.”

Australia’s demand for compensation if the tournament is moved is the first such public challenge to FIFA from one of the losing 2022 bidders. 

Lowy said he had already written Blatter to explain his federation’s position which was not, he stressed, based on sour grapes but simply, he claims, on the fact that the goalposts have been moved unfairly. The federation has come under extensive media criticism in Australia for its poor showing in the bid and the investment that was made. Infact the bid process for Australia wasn’t smooth with a number of competing sports and stadia reluctant to co-operate with the bid criteria until the last minute.

“Australia invested heavily in the World Cup process and the entire nation was behind the bid,” he was quoted as saying in the Australian media. “Since December 2010 Australia has been careful not to let its misgivings about the process be interpreted as sour grapes.

“But now, with increasing speculation about a change that will impact on us as one of the bidding nations, and because our competition will be affected, we have made our position public.”

Lowy also contentiously suggests that no decision on any switch be made until an investigation by FIFA’s ethics committee into the 2022 bidding process was completed.

“Better to let the independent investigative process run its natural course and then, with those issues settled, make a clear-eyed assessment about rescheduling and its consequences,” he said.

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