By Andrew Warshaw
June 4 – The Australian football federation (FFA) has denied any wrongdoing in its failed bid for the 2022 World Cup, insisting it broke no FIFA rules.
As FIFA’s ethics committee investigator Michael Garcia prepares to wrap up his inquiry into the bid process for both 2018 and 2022, Bonita Mersiades, who was the FFA head of corporate affairs during much of the bid process before being released by the FFA mid-bid, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that the country’s conduct needed to be examined.
Speaking in the wake of the Sunday Times’ expose into Qatar’s 2022 landslide victory, Mersiades said: “Some of the evidence published in relation to Qatar was that some of the money was given to development projects – we gave money for development projects, we gave $4 million to the Oceania Football Confederation for sports development.”
“That was via the government, in and of itself there was nothing wrong with sports development projects, but the question for Michael Garcia was, was there a vote attached to it? If the answer to that is ‘yes’, then it’s very hard to argue that that activity is very much different from what (Mohamed) bin Hammam is alleged to have been doing.”
Fairfax Media has reported that Garcia recently flew Mersiades to the US to confidentially interview her about Australia’s role in the bid process.
Bin Hammam, who was Asian Football Confederation president at the time the World Cup was awarded to his country, is at the centre of the latest allegations but has yet to comment publicly on the matter.
Australia allegedly spent A$43 million (S40 million) on its failed bid in 2010, but secured just one vote in the ballot. In a statement, the FFA said its support for overseas projects was made fairly under FIFA guidelines.
“It has been previously widely reported that during its bid campaign, Australia supported a number of football and humanitarian programs,” the FFA said. “FFA has kept the Australian Government and football authorities, including Mr Garcia, informed of these activities at all relevant times.”
The FFA said its support for ‘A CONCACAF Centre of Excellence’ project in the Caribbean was a “matter of public record”.
The FFA donated A$500,000 ($464,000) in 2010 and says it was only told in 2013, after a CONCACAF probe, that the fund had been misappropriated. “FFA liaised with both CONCACAF and FIFA following the CONCACAF inquiry finding and was informed that Mr Garcia’s inquiry would now investigate the matter further. FFA provided information to Mr Garcia and co-operated fully with him.
“”Australia’s activities throughout were transparent and proper. FFA sought to align its activities with the Australian Government’s broader international aid objectives and in areas of focus for government aid programs, namely Oceania, Asia, Africa and the Caribbean,” the statement continued.
“In each case, these activities were conducted with proper due diligence, including an assessment of the proposed project, recording and documentation.”
Meanwhile, The Australian newspaper reported that the FFA is giving serious consideration to having another attempt at winning 2022 if a revote is ordered though the likelihood of that is extremely slim.
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