"Australia had no chance. Not a chance. Never."

These words were uttered by disgraced former FIFA president Sepp Blatter late last year as he had lunch with former Football Federation Australia (FFA) executive Bonita Mersiades in Zurich.

He was talking of course about Australia's bid for the 2022 Football World Cup. The revelations are contained in Ms Mersiades' new book, Whatever It Takes: The Inside Story of the FIFA Way, which was launched to a packed room opposite the Houses of Parliament in London overnight.

It would have been nice if the Australian Government had known Blatter's true thoughts in 2008 before it committed $46 million of taxpayers' money to the bid.

At least some of that money is alleged to have been used to help buy votes during a corrupt bid process. FIFA investigator Michael Garcia found there was "significant evidence" that Australia tried to influence voting through improper payments.

The reason Australia was never going to win?

"You never had a chance because you were never going to be competitive for the broadcasters," according to Mr Blatter, as quoted in Whatever It Takes.

"Not the time zone, not the money. It is obvious. We have to make enough money at the World Cup for the next four years and Australia wouldn't be able to do it."

Bonita Mersiades interviewed former FIFA boss Sepp Blatter for the book. ( Supplied )

Qatar, the eventual winner of the 2022 bid had a similar problem, but according to revelations in Ms Mersiades' book, it found a way around it.

She says Al Jazeera offered FIFA a payment of US$100 million if Qatar won the right to host the World Cup.

According to Ms Mersiades, three consultants hired by the FFA cost the Australian taxpayer "around $15 million including disbursements".

Peter Hargitay, Fedor Radmann and Andreas Abold had been hired variously for their knowledge of the FIFA system, their strong contacts with Mr Blatter and their successes with previous bid campaigns.

By any measure the millions they received did not turn out to be a good investment.

Firstly, the bid team secured just one lousy vote.

Secondly, if what Mr Blatter says is correct, they must have known a World Cup in Australia was never viable because it would not have made enough money for FIFA through broadcast rights.

Thirdly, they offended people during the bid process and harmed Australia's reputation.

Bonita Mersiades launches her new book, Whatever It Takes: The Inside Story of the FIFA Way, in London. ( ABC News: Niall Lenihan )

As David Downs, the chief executive of the US bid, told Ms Mersiades in 2010: "There's no consistency of message. They've managed their relationships so poorly. It's hard to find someone who likes the Australian bid team. Frank (Lowy), Ben (Buckley), the consultants. We hear reports all the time about how they've put people off everywhere. None of us can understand how you can have that much public money and do so poorly."

Ms Mersiades was sacked from Australia's bid team in early 2010. She says it was at the behest of the consultants. In Whatever it Takes, she says her boss had given her the maximum performance bonus just four weeks before she was removed from her position.

The former bid executive had warned Frank Lowy and others at the FFA about the consultants. She felt they were a liability and in particular was concerned that Australia's bid team, using taxpayers' money, ran a reputational risk by hiring Mr Radmann and Mr Hargitay.

The Socceroos will compete at this year's World Cup in Russia. ( AP: Daniel Munoz )

"It was well documented what their backgrounds were. They were like courtesans. They gave bidders plausible deniability about conversations. So when someone says for instance, they didn't have a conversation with [then-FIFA vice president] Jack Warner about the half a million dollars that allegedly ended up in his bank account, that's probably true. That's why they had consultants."

Mr Hargitay had been employed by England's bid team before he joined the Australian campaign.

Former British football chief Lord David Triesman, who attended the launch of Whatever It Takes, told the ABC the contract did not continue after he took over as chairman of England's bid team.

"I was briefed on the kind of campaign that he thought would win. I must say I thought it was thoroughly distasteful," he said.

Despite the revelations in this book, it seems to be unlikely that there will ever be a proper investigation into exactly what happened to the $46 million blown on Australia's World Cup bid.

There was little appetite from either side of politics when allegations of buying votes first surfaced, and that does not seem to have changed.

However, one conclusion can be reached without an inquiry. The Americans did it better than the Australians. Their bid lost as well, but they won more votes, did it without consultants and all on a budget of around $10 million, that had been raised through private sources.