Australia say they have winning 2022 W.Cup bid

Australian football chief Frank Lowy said that he fully expects his country to win the FIFA vote to host the 2022 World Cup because their bid is the best.

“I believe Australia has the best bid, I know we have the best bid,” he told a Sydney business lunch on Friday.

“I know we have convinced many of the FIFA executive committee that we have the best bid.

“But will we have the critical 13 votes needed to win it?

“In my heart I really believe so.”

Australia are vying with the United States, Qatar, Japan and South Korea for the right to stage the 2022 World Cup, with a decision to be made in Zurich on December 2.

Lowy, 80, chairman of Football Federation Australia (FFA), said the ultimate prize was a huge one.

“The global power that flows from that simple round ball will be in our hands,” he said. “The prize really is that big.

“The 2022 World Cup will take place at precisely the moment in history when Asia, and the powerhouse economies of China, India, South Korea and others, replace today’s developed economies as the engine room of the global economy.

“It will deliver benefits for this generation and generations of Australians not yet born.”

Asked what was the greater prize — hosting the World Cup or winning it — he said: “I want to do both. Our aim is to have a team which will be able to participate in the final of 2022.”

Lowy, a multi-billionaire retail property tycoon, said irrespective of the FIFA decision he intends to remain head of the FFA.

“If we lose I am going to stay the distance,” said Lowy, who would be 92 by the time a successful World Cup bid came to fruition.

“There is no question that I will continue as chairman of FFA, and the whole FFA team will suck up the disappointment and get on with the job.”