Tutu backs Australian World Cup bid - Inside World Football

By David Owen

December 1 – The Australian bid for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups has scored a major coup by securing backing from Emeritus Archbishop Desmond Tutu (pictured).

The Nobel Peace Prize Laureate has offered to join the Australian bid at next year’s final presentation in Zurich.

And today in Cape Town he conducted a media conference – marking the presentation by Football Federation Australia (FFA) chairman Frank Lowy of a one million rand cheque to support the work of a hospital of which Tutu and his wife are patrons – in a Socceroos football shirt.

It is the sort of gesture from the man who was probably the second-most prominent opponent of apartheid after only Nelson Mandela himself that is likely to carry great weight with Sepp Blatter and other FIFA Executive Committee members, four of whom are from Africa.

The FIFA President is widely believed to have ambitions of winning the Nobel Peace Prize himself.

The presence of the 78-year-old former Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town in Zurich for the December 2010 vote could, moreover, have a critical bearing on the outcome, with the final 24-48 hours before a decision often the most critical of all.

Today’s event at the Tygerberg Children’s Hospital in Cape Town does much to explain the Australian bid’s absence from the Soccerex conference in Johannesburg, which has been attended by most of its rivals.

Lowy said: “Africa has given football some of the world’s best players over the years and this is a gesture that also recognises Africa’s contribution to our game.

“It must be our legacy and it is Australia’s long-standing policy to help where help is most needed.

“Archbishop Tutu has fought for justice for decades and it is an honour and a privilege for me to offer a comparatively small contribution to his fight for a better life for those who are the most vulnerable in the world: children of all creeds, ethnicities and walks of life.”

Lowy said that, in co-operation with the Australian Government, AusAID and the Australian corporate sector, the contribution to Tygerberg Children’s Hospital was the beginning of an in Australian initiative to help build a better future for vulnerable children in Africa.

“We are determined to grow today’s initiative into a substantial and ongoing programme to help improve children’s health, education and social outcomes and assist in the development of those who live in underprivileged conditions throughout the African continent,” he said.

Lowy and Ben Buckley, the FFA chief executive, were also accompanied by eight children from around Australia.

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