Australia dragged into World Cup bid controversy
Australia's controversial bid for 2022 World Cup has come under fresh scrutiny, with a whistleblower reportedly flown to New York to give testimony to FIFA's top investigator.
Fairfax has reported former Football Federation Australia corporate affairs manager Bonita Mersiades was flown to the United States to speak confidentially with FIFA investigator Michael Garcia about how Australia sought to win votes during the bidding process.
It comes as it was reported Garcia would not look into startling new evidence leaked to the UK press that allegedly exposed Qatar's successful plan to buy the rights to host the 2022 World Cup.
Garcia has promised to complete the first stage of his investigation next week, which has involved analysing the bidding processes of all countries in contention to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
The focus of Garcia's investigation into Australia's bid centres on FFA's interaction with disgraced FIFA officials Jack Warner and Reynald Temarii.
In particular, it focuses on the failure of FFA to call in the Federal Police to investigate claims Warner stole $500,000 in funds from Australia.
Australia had delivered the money into a Caribbean bank account controlled by Warner to upgrade a stadium in his native Trinidad and Tobago.
A 2013 inquiry conducted by the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football integrity committee and found that the money had most likely been stolen.
A senior FIFA source has described as "disgraceful" the fact FFA did not inform police about the stolen money, but Mersiades says it was not reported because it would expose the risky tactics FFA officials were using in the lead up the World Cup vote in 2010.
"The FFA should report the alleged theft of its funds by Mr Warner immediately to the Federal Police, given a 2013 inquiry has already found that a fraud has most likely been committed," Mersiades said.
Mersiades says allegations of corruption by disgraced Qatari official Mohammad Bin Hammam – which were exposed in detail by the Sunday Times – has cast a significant cloud of doubt over Qatar's successful bid.
But she stressed that all nations involved in the bidding process, including Australia, should be investigated for the practices they used to win votes.
"The revelations in the Sunday Times about the way Bin Hammam used hospitality, gifts, perks and upgrades of stadiums to win bid support has parallels with the manner in which Australia used some of its funds during its bidding campaign.
"Just look at the FFA funds that landed in Warner's account and which have never been recovered."
FFA told Fairfax they were awaiting "the outcome of ... (the ongoing FIFA inquiry) before pursuing the matter" of the stolen money.
Mersiades has refused to confirm whether or not she has been interviewed by Garcia.
Mersiades was a top FFA official during Australia's bidding process before being controversially forced out of the organisation in 2010.
Garcia's investigation came under fire on Tuesday when it was revealed the detailed revelations in the Sunday Times would not be considered before he completed the initial stage of his investigation on June 9.
While it would be impractical for Garcia to analyse the millions of documents before the impending deadline, it has raised concerns that he has already formed a view of the methods of the bidding nations.
"If the Garcia investigation refuses to accept the Sunday Times evidence the process will be a sham and FIFA will be forever tainted. Corruption must be tackled," said Jim Murphy, the British government’s Shadow Secretary for International Development.
