Australia kick bidding off after vote setback

Published>Wed, Dec 01 10 04:48 PM

Australia were set to make the first of the final presentations of the five bidders for the 2022 World Cup on Wednesday, having suffered the setback of losing what was widely believed to be a guaranteed vote.

Australia will be followed by South Korea, Qatar, United States and Japan in making their presentation to FIFA's executive committee, whose 22 members will decide on the destination of both the 2018 and 2022 World Cups on Thursday.

Their presentation will be made barely 12 hours after discovering that no representative from the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC), who would almost have certainly voted for Australia, would be involved in the vote.

The OFC's lone executive committee member Reynald Temarii -- also their president -- was suspended by FIFA last month, along with fellow executive committee member Amos Adamu of Nigeria, after the British newspaper the Sunday Times alleged that he offered to sell his vote to undercover reporters.

The OFC could have replaced Temarii with their acting president David Chung if the Tahitian had dropped his appeal against the suspension and resigned.

But, in a statement issued through his lawyer in Paris, Temarii said he would continue fighting his ban and Oceania accepted it would not have a vote.

"Oceania's sole spot on the FIFA Executive Committee is not considered vacant as long as the appeal process is still open," the OFC said in a statement.

"Therefore, Acting OFC President David Chung will not be able to replace Mr. Temarii on the FIFA Executive until such time as the appeal process has concluded," it added.

Australia were formerly members of the OFC and, although they have joined the Asian Confederation, they are still on good terms with their former confederation.

Candidates for the 2018 tournament -- England, Russia and joint bids from Spain/Portugal and Belgium/Netherlands -- will make their presentations on Thursday morning.

The results of the two votes are due to be announced on Thursday at 1500 GMT.

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