Thu 24 May 2012 | 
Time for FFA to admit the 2018 game is up
Email to friend
Print
Enlarge textWith FIFA hinting at a 2018 World Cup in Europe, Australia must focus solely on hosting the exalted event in 2022, writes Jesse Fink.
Kevin Rudd and Australia may have to wait until at least 2022 to get their hands on the World Cup [GETTY]
- 11 Comments | Join the discussion
A few months ago someone somewhere commented that I was "deathriding" the Australian World Cup bid. A rather preposterous suggestion when all I have ever argued, going way back when the bid was first announced, is that we had no chance for 2018 – indeed I called it "quixotic".
The big chance was 2022, but damn anyone who said so. Negative. Unpatriotic. Seditious.
Even when Sepp Blatter, FIFA's wily president, was giving us a big hint to pack it in as far back as June 2008, telling anyone who would listen "it is perhaps logical that Australia concentrates on the 2022 tournament", Football Federation Australia was as stubborn as a mule.
While fellow Asian bidders South Korea, Indonesia and Qatar had the sense to concentrate solely on 2022, Australia's campaigners stuck to the script and insisted nothing had changed. All was good. On course. Rah rah rah.
But this week Blatter has spelled it out for Australia again. Not only are we no chance for 2018 but Australia might not even be considered at all when it comes to FIFA's executive committee deciding in December this year who hosts the 2018 tournament.
Blatter, it has been reported on The World Game, has been negotiating with UEFA on a proposal to restrict the votes for 2018 solely to European candidates.
"There is a movement at the moment among the various candidates that in the end it would be a good solution if the candidates for 2018 would only be those from Europe," he said.
"It's not been finally decided but it's the idea also to make the work of FIFA easier and especially that of the executive committee. It would also possibly make the work of the different organisations applying for the World Cup easier."
Easier? Yes, Mr Blatter, it probably would. Yet it also would have been much easier for all bidding nations if they'd known straight up from the beginning that they were potentially throwing away good money at a lost cause. Throwing away? Though a trusted source told me a dollar figure was "impossible to quantify" the "bid strategy would have been different" had we concentrated on 2022 alone, in so doing saving time, effort and, naturally, money.
From the Australian perspective, that money, $45.6 million of it (budgeted for 2018 and 2022), has come from Australian taxpayers' pockets.
Now you would think the FFA would finally see the writing was on the wall: 2018 is dead in the water. But in a press release today bid chairman Frank Lowy said: "If we come to the view that we have a better chance for 2022, than 2018, we will act accordingly."
With the greatest respect to Mr Lowy, the chief architect and driver of Australia's bid, what more information does he need to change the FFA's view?
Enough energy has been wasted on the mirage of Australia 2018, and Qatar, as I wrote last week for The World Game has stolen a march on us to be Asia's host for the 2022 tournament.
There's much catching up to do.
So please, FFA, pack away the 2018 bunting and let's start refocusing all our efforts where they should have been all along: 2022.
:: For more Fink musings on the big issues in football, check out Half-time Orange on The World Game.
top
Blog Home 
Comments (11)
Previous 10 |
03 Feb 2010 19:06 AEST
From: perth
2018 WORLD CUP DREAM END
I watch on Tv last sunday the interview with the FFA CEO, but i am really disappointed about it. I think in my personal opinion, this man HAS TO RESIGN to his position as a Director of the Institution. He looked like didnt care about the Australian aspirations to have a world Cup ever. He looks very relax and i am sure He doesnt care about Australian Futbol. I am a latinoamerican woman who loves Futbol and I now when somebody really love it and this man just is there for money........$$$$$$
02 Feb 2010 4:21 AEST
From: London
Lowy
I couldnt agree more with 'Vince' - his comment is absolutely spot on. Lowy is an astute politician and he knows exactly what he's doing. I figure he dropped the 2018 thought ages ago and its 2022 all the way for him, but whats the upside in publicising the FFAs true strategy ? None. Jesse, I cant wait until Australia gets the World Cup (I'm thinking 2022) and you and your colleagues will need to crawl back into your boulevardesque wannabe-journalist shells (oh wait, no, on December 3rd 2010 you will ofcourse jubilate and say you knew it all along!). Time will tell.
29 Jan 2010 16:56 AEST
From: Queenscliff, NSW
Visualization the key to success
The problem I have with negative naysayers when it comes to our world cup bid is that they fail to recognize the damage their words and thinking has to the bid, however 'pragmatic' they may think they are being. In fact, all high performers, such as Frank Lowy use a common technique called 'visualization' to reach goals. This means visualizing yourself in the situation you wish to be in. In this case, positive visualization of hosting the world cup in Australia can then move our actions and thinking to find a way to make it a reality. This may sound like shallow psychobabble but it is a very real and effective technique that can help in our bid.
29 Jan 2010 10:16 AEST
From: Sydney
2018 was always unrealistic
South Africa 2010. Brazil 2014. FIFA were never, ever going to award it to another country in the southern hemisphere so soon. I think there's a view that Australia hasn't earnt it yet. Were we expecting that we'd be placed at the front of the queue right after finally coming in from the cold? Aside from which, let's not rely too much on what Blatter says. Or doesn't say. I'm with Vince on this.
29 Jan 2010 4:40 AEST
From: perth
Blatter made us dissapointed
Why all the time Europe Blatter don't want to promote foot ball he is not fair !
29 Jan 2010 0:34 AEST
From: Perth
Don't Knock FFA.. Knock Fifa
Seriously Jesse, you should be disparaging Sepp Blatter and FIFA here. Not taking shots at FFA when they have been knocked down and especially when Frank Lowy's dream of being alive for his home world cup is disappearing. FIFA opens up the bidding for all countries for 2018-2022 and then decides to start a 'deal making' process with EUFA to ensure the 2018 WC goes to a Euro country. Its grubby politics at its worst. FIFA are wrong here, FFA are shooting for the moon and doing a damn fine job.
28 Jan 2010 15:39 AEST
From: melbourne
the rat
As we all know Sepp(the rat) Blatter is well known for changing his thinking. What he says in one part of the world will be different to what he preaches to the masses in another part. As far as the bid goes its business as usual until we see something official.
28 Jan 2010 14:43 AEST
From: Newcastle
Does it really matter?
Yeah FIFA is annoying - but UEFA wants the 2018 World Cup and it is going to have it one way or another. I don't think there were any nations doing just 2018 (non-Euro nations that is). That is why you bid for both - Australia just gets an extra four years to negotiate with other codes and the government on infrastructure.
28 Jan 2010 13:17 AEST
From: Newcastle
Who didn't see it coming?
Here's a simple reminder.... there will be two world cups in succession outside Europe. I don't know why we bothered. Take a look at the history of the WC. It's quite a clear pattern. And so it should be - nearly half of the world cup's participation comes from Europe, and all the major leagues, which set the pace for world football, are in Europe. It's a total no brainer. I don't know what spell was cast to entice Australian's that 2018 was ever, ever in the picture. Bring on 2022.
28 Jan 2010 13:07 AEST
From: Mildura
Politics
Hi Jesse I would like to believe that Frank Lowy is playing the FIFA game better than anyone else in Australia could have and that what he says publicly is different to how he is managing the process behind closed doors. It would have served no useful purpose for him to lambast FIFA although it would have scored well locally. I am of the belief that everyone was working on the theory that 2018 was going to Europe and that the USA/Australia etc were all battling over 2022. 2018 would be a nice crowning glory for Frank but 2022 was always the more likely and better from a marketing point of view as it would give us an extra 4 years of hype to increase the migration of boys to Football from AFL and Rugby.
Join the discussion
PLEASE NOTE: All submitted comments become the property of SBS. We reserve the right to edit and/or amend submitted comments. HTML tags other than paragraph, line break, bold or italics will be removed from your comment.
Most Popular
- Shame on the ABC and Nine for their wrecking of Matthew Johns (125)
- The fight for truth, fairness and the restoration of Matthew Johns (59)
- Give it a whirl? I'm giving it the flick (46)
- Why is Kevin Muscat a protected species? (38)
- News Limited's treatment of football is bottom-of-the-barrel stuff (35)
- Who's fooling who? (30)
- Old hands won't win new fans (24)
- America: who are you? (23)
- Four Corners running out of excuses in the Matthew Johns saga (22)
- Explain what "family friendly" means again, Tim? (20)
About this Blog
The Finktank is more of what you've come to expect from Jesse Fink, The World Game's enfant terrible, but with a bent on the big issues in sport. No sport, no personality, no subject, is off limits.
Jesse Fink Jesse Fink is one of Australia's most popular football writers and sports columnists. He is the author of the book 15 Days in June: How Australia Became a Football Nation (Hardie Grant, $29.95) and writes twice a week as "Half-Time Orange" for The World Game and weekly for ESPN Star Sports in Singapore. He lives in Sydney.
Other Blogs
TV
- Living Black
- Italian Food Safari
- Thalassa
- Luke Nguyen's Vietnam
- Behind the Scenes: The 2009 Deadly Awards
- My Family Feast
- Costa's Production Blog
- Eurovision 2011
- Swift and Shift Couriers
- Global Village
- My Bogan Diary
- The Road to the White House
Food
Films
Documentary
- Britt Arthur
- Catharine Lumby
- John Birmingham
- Rory Medcalf
- Mark Jones
- Emily Booth
- Bob Wurth
- Andy Martin
World News Australia
- Ricardo's Business
- 180 degrees
- Reporters' Blog
- The Hashtag
- The Other World Game
- Window on Africa
- Pop, Cultured
- PJ's Notebook
- The Sweet Spot
- Back of the.net
- Source Code
- The Road to 2012
- Candid Canberra
Sport
- The Circus
- The Interchange
- The Hangover
- Lip Service
- Deep in the Dust: On the Dakar trail
- Dakar Dreams
- The Finktank
- Open Season
About SBS
Business
Internet and Technology
Cycling Central
- Rochelle Gilmore
- Matthew Price's Broom Wagon
- Anthony Tan's Velo Files
- Matthew Keenan
- Al Hinds
- Sophie Smith
- Philip Gomes
- Scott Sunderland
- Mike Tomalaris
Festival Reports
Tour De France
