Australia lost 2022 World Cup bid due to playing it ‘clean’: Consultant

MELBOURNE - A key consultant on Australia’s 2022 World Cup bid has said that FIFA’s decision to grant the tournament to Qatar was a difficult decision to defend or accept.

Peter Hargitay said the decision to give a tournament of the stature of the World Cup to a country with a population of only 1.5 million was unbelievable.

When asked why FIFA would back Qatar despite its crippling heat and lack of infrastructure, Hargitay indicated that Australia could not compete with the money being offered by that resource rich nation.

“You go figure it out. What do you think? What do you think motivates people, 14 of them, to vote for a country the population of Zurich, to vote for a country that is the size of Fiji, to vote for a country where the infrastructure to play host to millions of fans still has to be created. You go figure, how can 14 men make that decision?” the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Hargitay, as saying.

“The most fundamental mistake we [Australia] made, and there can be no other way, is that we played it clean,” he added. (ANI)