A Senate inquiry into Australia’s failed bid to host the Fifa 2022 football World Cup is “almost inevitable”, the independent senator Nick Xenophon has said.
Xenophon said the proposal had the backing of Labor, the Greens and other crossbenchers.
“I think that a Senate inquiry will give us some very good answers into what went wrong,” Xenophon told reporters on Thursday. “I think that it is almost inevitable that there will be a Senate inquiry into this because there are just too many unanswered questions.”
The senator, who has been calling for reform within the world football governing body for years, is writing to the sports minister, Sussan Ley, to garner government support for an investigation.
“I believe there are highly relevant issues to raise in the context of a Senate inquiry as to the governance and probity mechanisms that should be in place where tax payer funds are being used for bids to host international sporting events,” the letter said.
But it is unlikely he will get that support. Ley issued a statement saying that “details of how Australia’s bid was made was primarily a matter for Football Federation Australia and there was already an opportunity for questions to be asked about taxpayer expenditure at Senate estimates”.
She continues by saying that “appropriate governance reforms at Fifa must be undertaken, and succeed, before Australia could ever entrust taxpayer dollars towards any bid overseen by Fifa”.
More than $42m of taxpayer dollars went into the bid, which was ultimately won by Qatar. The FFA made a $500,000 donation to stadium redevelopment for the north and central American football confederation (Concacaf), which allegedly landed in the hands of disgraced Fifa official Jack Warner.
Ley told Guardian Australia she was conscious of the fact that the allegations had been raised with the Australian federal police.
“The government will monitor the situation to determine whether any additional action is required,” she said.
Fifa had initially asked for a donation of $4m. The FFA has asked for its money back, after securing just one vote for the 2022 tournament.
The FFA head, Frank Lowy, admitted that the organisation had been “naive” in the bidding process.
“We ran a clean bid and we are proud of that but it wasn’t a level playing field and therefore we didn’t win it. I will always be bitterly disappointed about the outcome,” Lowy said in a statement issued on Wednesday. “Did we make mistakes? Yes. Were we naive? In some cases, yes. Would we do things differently in future? Absolutely.”
Despite the mistakes, Xenophon still backs the FFA chairman.
“I think it’s premature and unfair to be calling for Frank Lowy’s head,” the senator said.
But he argued that Qatar’s “game is up” following allegations of corruption and mistreatment of workers.
“How on Earth can the nations of the world turn up in Qatar in 2022 to participate in the World Cup when already 1,200 foreign workers have died in slave-like conditions in building the facilities?” Xenophon asked. “How can sponsors such as Coca-Cola put their names as sponsors to the World Cup with that sort of history of mass death?”
“There needs to be another bid,” he said, adding that Australia should only put its hand up to host if there is 100% transparency in the process, and a change in Fifa’s governance structures.
He thinks allegations of corruption will persist while “cronies” of Fifa boss Sepp Blatter remain in the organisation. Blatter resigned after 17 years at the helm just days after being re-elected to the top job.
“I think Sepp Blatter is to scandals what cockroaches are to nuclear blasts,” Xenophon said.
