Australia ready to host 2022 FIFA if Qatar are found guilty of bribery allegations

FIFA president Sepp Blatter under pressure to consider a new bidding process after Qatar were accused of bribing officials to win the bid to host the 2022 World Cup.

With bribery allegations surrounding the awarding of the 2022 FIFA World Cup to Qatar, Australia is now ready to renew its intereset in hosting the World Cup.

Investigations have revealed that Qatar bribed FIFA officials with $5.4 million to help secure the rights to host the World Cup. In a bidding process that shocked the world, Australia received only one vote while Qatar – a country with no football history – won the rights to host the prestigious event.

Evidence from various e-mails points to former president of the Asian Football Confederation Mohamed Bin Hammam bribing committee members with cash totalling almost a quarter of a million dollars, according to The Sunday Times.

According to The Australian, Football Federation Australia (FFA) is planning to try and bring the World Cup down under even though they failed in 2010 after spending $43 million.

An FFA spokeperson said, “We note these are very serious allegations,”

“We have been monitoring FIFA’s investigation for many months and will be keenly interested in the response. At this stage, we can only continue to encourage a thorough process that uncovers all the facts in a timely way.”

Jim Boyce, the FIFA vice-president, said that a new bidding process should be considered if allegations against Qatar are proven. Boyce mentioned on Sky Sports that an American lawyer Michael Garcia is investigating the bidding process for both the 2018 and 2022 world Cups, won by Russia and Qatar respectively.

“I have absolutely no doubt that if there’s concrete evidence supplied by Mr Garcia to FIFA and the executive committee it has got to be taken very, very seriously,”

“I hope the right decision would be made at that time. I think (a new vote) would have to be a possibility, but ... a full investigation is being carried out by Michael Garcia and let’s wait for its developments.”

Qatar winning the bid to host a World Cup raised plenty of eyebrows and England’s FA chairman Greg Dyke was very straightforward with his opinion on the matter.

“For a lot of people it was a surprise the Qataris won and won easily because there is no real footballing tradition in Qatar,”

“It’s a small country — does it need eight football stadiums? And of course the heat there in the summer makes playing a tournament virtually impossible. Those who decided where this tournament was going to go were told that.”