Australia '40 years off a World Cup'

Australian soccer faces the sobering reality of not being a serious contender to stage the World Cup for the next 40 years.

A shellshocked Australian bid team was completely blindsided at the 2022 tournament vote in Zurich, and is still coming to grips with being chewed up and spat out by FIFA's executive committee.

The rotation system means that Qatar's triumph has put the next likely Asian host of the quadrennial event back to either the 2034 or 2038 edition.

And with Asian powerhouse China's declaration on Friday it is interested in hosting a World Cup it would almost certainly get once it raised its hand officially, it could be as far off as 2046 or 2050 before Australia can legitimately put its hat back in the ring.

As the fingerpointing and bloodletting begin over whether the $45 million spent on the failed bid was a worthwhile exercise, Australia may also decide future bids are not worth the trouble.

One of Australia's biggest problems appears to be gaining any influence within the Asian Football Confederation in terms of votes - its solitary vote and first-round exit in FIFA's convoluted secret ballot process an embarrassing result.

"Now the dream has vanished, it is going to be a long time before it comes around again," Socceroos captain Lucas Neill said.

"I think on the rotation I think it will be at least 2030, maybe 2034 before we can go again which is sad and it means some of these guys may not be around to be part of it."

The result was also a body blow for the code and the sport's saviour in Australia, Frank Lowy, accepted that it was a setback.

"(I want) to carry on and make football a successful mainstream sport in Australia," he said.

"It may take a little longer than I thought."

The sport has been on an upward curve in Australia under Lowy in the past seven years but Thursday's result showed that off-the-pitch dealings with FIFA are much more complicated than on it.

Even a shrewd operator like Westfield shopping centre magnate Lowy was led up the garden path by the 22 men on FIFA's executive committee.

All the smiles, positive feedback and gestures of support from the sporting body's powerbrokers over the past three years of lobbying counted for little in the end.

"Harder than I thought it would be," said Lowy.

"I expected to be smiling here today and giving a press conference for a winner."

Those involved in the failed bid have not yet indicated whether Australia would ever be interested again in bidding for future World Cups.

But Prime Minister Julia Gillard denied the millions spent on highly-paid consultants, promotional videos and failed schmoozing of the FIFA executive committee members who voted had been a waste of taxpayers' money.

"I think everybody is disappointed and those who worked so hard on what was a great bid were very disappointed," Ms Gillard said.

"I believe Frank Lowy and his team have done a remarkable job."

The setback is unlikely to derail Australia's ongoing bid to host the 2015 Asian Cup finals - which was widely seen as being the test bed to host a World Cup.

Qatar, a country which regularly has temperatures in the mid-40s and occasionally as high as 50 degrees during the June-July World Cup period, has promised specially air-conditioned stadia for the 2022 event.

FIFA's evaluation report expressed fears for the welfare of players at a World Cup in Qatar, but those concerns were overridden in Thursday's count in Zurich.

Qatar is ranked 113 in the current FIFA world rankings and has never before qualified for a World Cup finals.

As hosts, they will automatically qualify in 2022 for the first World Cup to be held in the Middle East.