In a 42-page summary of the 18-month inquiry into the bidding processes for the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups conducted by the former United States attorney Michael Garcia and released yesterday, Russia and Qatar were both effectively cleared of any wrongdoing.

But Australia, who were eliminated in the first round of the five-way contest in 2010, were accused of making efforts to woo former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner and Oceania Executive Committee member Reynald Temarii by providing money for development projects.

"FFA did its best to run a competitive and compliant bid and to do it wherever possible hand-in-hand with the Australian Government, with the customary Government oversight," said Lowy, a chief architect behind the unsuccessful bid.

"We also involved, wherever possible, other bodies such as UNICEF and FIFA itself.

"In addition, the financial management of the bid funds were routinely reported to Government and reviewed by independent external auditors.

"I made it clear to all involved in our bid that we would run a clean campaign and I stressed this objective at every opportunity."

Supporting educational projects was a key part of the Australian World Cup bid, but they claim FIFA encouraged this approach ©AFP/Getty Images



Lowy admitted they had sought to take every opportunity to demonstrate Australia's commitment to football, especially with regard to projects in developing regions, but only after they were encouraged to do so by FIFA.

"It's clear that this led us to be misled in particular relating to a payment made to CONCACAF (Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football) which was later revealed to have been misappropriated," the official added.

"In hindsight, there are many things we might have done differently and we remain disappointed by our experience of the World Cup bidding process."

They have already co-operated fully with the Garcia inquiry and in August received written thanks for this cooperation, it was added, with the FFA now waiting for advice from FIFA on appropriate next steps to take.

Australia's bid was not the only one to be criticised in the summary with England, an unsuccessful contender in the 2018 race won by Russia, also accused of attempting to curry favour with Warner, who was thought to control a bloc of key Executive Committee votes.

After widespread allegations of corruption in much of the western media, Qatar meanwhile was described as being involved in "potentially problematic" activities, but was cleared of further wrongdoing and is not subject to further investigation.

However, since the summary was released, Garcia himself has questioned the presentation of the findings, presented by Hans-Joachim Eckert, chairman of the Adjudicatory Chamber of the FIFA Ethics Committee, and intends to lodge an appeal to the FIFA Appeal Committee.

He claims the report "contains numerous materially incomplete and erroneous representations of the facts and conclusions".

The full report will not be released publicly.

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