Australia World Cup bid accused of chasing a dream at expense of everything else

By Duncan Mackay

December 14 – Jeff Kennett (pictured), one of Australia’s most prominent politicians and now the President of leading Australian Football League (AFL) club Hawthorn, has warned that the organisers behind the country’s bid to host the 2018 or 2022 World Cup are prepared to chase their dream at the expense of everyone else.

Kennett, the former Premier of Victoria who was involved in Melbourne’s successful bid to host the 2006 Commonwealth Games, claimed that Football Federation Australia (FFA) had been swept up in the idea of hosting the event and had not considered the impact it would have.

He said: ”I have yet to see any evidence, that anyone, be it the Federal Government, or Soccer Australia [sic], have actually done the detailed work as to both cost of staging the World Cup and then the ramifications of such.”

The AFL and the National Rugby League (NRL) is worried that if Australia’s bid is successful then they will be forced to abandon their season because most of their top stadiums would be needed to host World Cup matches.

Kennett said: ”No one’s offering compensation [to rival football codes] - no one has done the work.

“I’m in favour of the concept, but before you build a house, before you build a company, you’ve got to actually have done the work to work out what it’s going to cost and how you’re going to deliver it and I haven’t seen evidence of that.

“In one sense, the emotion is running this [the bid].”

Hawthorn are the most successful AFL club having won 10 Premierships and play some of their games at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), which would be a focal point if Australia’s bid to stage the World Cup is successful.

Kennett said: ”We’re following a dream and the dream has a lot of ramifications but no one’s done the work and it really worries me that this bid is not only going to cost a lot of money, it is going to disrupt the majority of Australians.

“For us in Australia it would mean that those codes which occupy 95 per cent of the football activity and 95 per cent of the public’s involvement, emotional and attendance has to step aside for a period of time sufficient to wreck the year to allow the code that only represents five per cent of our activity.”

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