Australia World Cup bid cleared by Government

By Duncan Mackay
British Sports Internet Writer of the Year

July 3 – Australian World Cup 2022 officials are set to take legal action after the Government cleared them of abusing public funds in their campaign.

The bid has been at the centre of worldwide allegations after the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, plus several other newspapers in the Fairfax newspaper group, claimed that tried to hide the true use of the money provided by the Government.

Ben Buckley, the chief executive of Football Federation Australia (FFA), had sought an urgent meeting with the Government Taskforce helping to run the bid following the allegations and had opened up the bid’s books for inspection.

Richard Eccles, the Taskforce’s deputy secretary, has now written to Buckley absolved them of having done anything wrong.

He wrote: “We note your assurance that the document that is referenced in several media articles over the past few days was an internal and informal planning document…we note that the contents of this document align with the reports provided by the FFA to the Taskforce, and we accept your assurance that the existence of the planning document does not mean the FFA maintains ‘dual’ financial reporting and records.”

The FFA are deciding whether to sue Fairfax newspapers, who they believe were trying to destroy Australia’s bid.

Buckley said: “We sought a meeting with the Government when these allegations were first put to us, and we opened up our books in full for them to examine them.

“The allegations that we have been keeping a so-called dual set of accounts and have sought to hide activity from the Government are outrageous, they are unsubstantiated, misleading and bordering on defamatory.

“The Government fully accepts our explanation on this issue and the allegations that we said were baseless have been shown to be by the Government’s own inspection of our books.

“We’re delighted that as a result we now have a clean bill of health from the Government and that they are perfectly happy with the reports we have given them.

“We will continue to disclose to them all our transactions and have all our dealings audited.”

FIFA have also launched an investigation into the allegations about Australia’s bid, including that they had given pearl necklaces to the wives of the FIFA Executive Committee and offered an all-expenses paid trip to one of the voting members.

But Buckley is confident that will also clear them and they will then decide whether to sue Fairfax.

He said: “We’ve never had anything to hide, we will have nothing to hide, and we are contemplating legal action against those who have made these allegations.”

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