Australia ´facing huge bill´ to stage football W.Cup

Australians could be up for a one billion dollar (980 million US) bill to pay for hosting the 2022 FIFA World Cup if the country wins the bid next month, reports said.

The federal and state governments have promised Football Federation Australia they will pick up a substantial share of the costs in improved security, public transport, customs and immigration services to stage the football tournament if the bid is successful, reports said on Tuesday.

The Age newspaper estimated the cost of the government undertakings at about one billion dollars.

The newspaper said this was on top of the governments’ guarantees for FFA’s planned 2.8 billion dollars in spending on building three stadiums in Sydney, Canberra and Perth and upgrading nine stadiums if Australia gets the go-ahead.

FIFA is due to announce on December 2 which countries have won the right to stage the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

Australia is competing against the United States, Japan, South Korea and Qatar for the 2022 tournament.

An FFA spokesman said Australia’s bid had “full federal, state and territory backing to the tune of 2.8 billion dollars in new or upgraded stadium and surrounding infrastructure”.

“We are not releasing a breakdown of the figures for each individual government, host city or stadium, but we will in due course if we are successful,” the spokesman told The Age.

A spokesperson for federal Sport Minister Mark Arbib said each bidding country had to provide to FIFA government guarantees that the stadia, infrastructure, security, transport and other services would be delivered.