Jun 28th, 2017

Then FIFA president announces Qatar as the host nation of the 2022 World Cup. (AAP)

Jun 28th, 2017

The internal report into FIFA corruption has implicated Football Federation Australia (FFA) in improper practices in a bid to influence executives deciding on where to hold the 2022 World Cup.

The bombshell Garcia report released overnight has alleged the FFA sent a half-million-dollar cheque to build a football stadium in Trinidad with the express purpose of influencing the vote of now-ousted FIFA vice president Jack Warner.

"The record provides significant evidence that the AU$500,000 was paid with the intention of influencing Mr Warner's World Cup vote," the report reads.

"Australia's bid team perceived the payment as a benefit for Mr Warner, as did Mr Warner himself."

The FFA would go on to bankroll Trinidad and Tobago's Under 20s trip to Cyprus in 2009 at Warner's request.

"I will make sure there is a quid pro quo, believe me," FFA consultant Peter Hargitay wrote in an email to former FFA CEO Ben Buckley, the report claims.

"Please advise and I take it further. I can pick up costs and invoice back as 'marketing costs'."

In a statement made this afternoon, the FFA said it had provided "full and valuable co-operation" into the inquiry.

"FFA reiterates that the financial management of the bid was routinely reported to Government and reviewed by independent external auditors," the statement read.

"Its payment to CONCACAF was also investigated by the Australian Federal Police which found that no Commonwealth offence was identified.

"FFA has said repeatedly that the bid process for 2018 and 2022 was deeply flawed and that mistakes were made by the Australian bid team."

The report also alleged the FFA tried to redirect Australian foreign aid money towards African countries with prominent FIFA officials.

In July 2010, then-FFA boss Frank Lowy sent a letter to FIFA executive Issa Hayatou of Cameroon expressing interest in funding football initiatives in Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Egypt.

The $4 million initiatives would be jointly funding by the FFA and government body AusAID.

But the FFA pulled out of initiatives because of a lack of support from AusAID.

"FFA's approach to funding development projects in Africa and elsewhere is a further unfortunate example of bid teams using money that should be awarded based upon humanitarian considerations to curry favour with officials eligible to vote on December 2, 2010," the Garcia report concluded.

"The bidding guidelines requiring candidates to support development efforts cannot be fairly read to encourage such behaviour. FFA's statement that there was 'uncertainty as to how to demonstrate that commitment' is not credible."

Lowy wrote in an open letter in 2015 that Australia ran a "clean bid" for the World Cup.

But he conceded Australia had been naïve in their 2022 World Cup ambitions.

"We gave funds, often in conjunction with AusAID and the Australian government, to many countries and football associations," he wrote.

"Sometimes these were football related."

For axed whistleblower Bonita Mersiades, the former FFA head of Corporate and Public Affairs, the Garcia Report is vindicating.

"What it shows is there are issues to be asked about the conduct of all bids, including our bid," she told nine.com.au.

"The issues involving Australia are the things I've been talking about for seven years."

Mersiades said the report showed the need for substantial change at FIFA.

"We always live in hope, but I think what you find is the people in charge of FIFA at the moment are probably chips off the old block," she said.

"I'm not saying they're corrupt, but they have an interest in preserving the FIFA way of doing things.

"(FIFA president) Gianni Infantino and the reforms that were brought in were only enough to stave off the Swiss and US authorities that were circling FIFA at the time.

"For FIFA to get the type of reform that's needed, it needs some external intervention to bring substantial change."

FFA has been approached for comment by nine.com.au.

The Garcia report also implicated the Russian, English, Spanish/Portuguese, South Korean and Qatari World Cup bids for improper behaviour.

The report did not find any significant issues with the bids of the United States, the joint bid by Belgium and the Netherlands, or Japan.

The Garcia report was authored by former US prosecutor Michael Garcia, who resigned as a FIFA investigator in 2014 because a sanitised summary was released by the governing body.

FIFA published the full report overnight after it was leaked to German newspaper Bild.

Russia was awarded the World Cup for next year, with Qatar named the host of the 2022 tournament.